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Toole embracing life after baseball

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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Father of a couple of former Hawkeye baseball players:


The phone rang in late May, and Lee Toole answered, assuming the conversation would be pretty straightforward.

An old acquaintance had a number of questions that had probably become routine for Toole since retiring last summer from coaching baseball.

“What are you doing with your free time?”

“Any plans to travel more?”

“Do you miss it at all?”

Then the announcement came. Summer sports would be returning to Iowa in June, the first state to return prep competition since the COVID-19 pandemic had suspended sports across the state in early March.

The executive director of the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association since 2008, Toole met the news with intrigue.

“I’m guessing I’ll be on the phone quite a bit today,” said Toole, who has since helped establish guidelines on getting baseball back safely.

What is unique is that Toole isn’t currently in an Iowa prep baseball dugout for the first time since 1982. Following stops at New Hartford (1983-1985), Thomas Jefferson (1986-1999) and Lewis Central (2000-2019) and compiling a 909-474 record, Toole is now enjoying retirement.

The absence of planning for a season, building a roster and maintaining the field will be an adjustment for one of the better-known baseball personalities in Council Bluffs.

“It’s been different,” Toole said. “I’m finding more time to work in the yard. My wife always gave me a hard time that our baseball field always looked nicer than our yard. This year, the goal is that my yard will look nice. I’ve been working very hard fertilizing, watering and getting rid of some moles, things like that, so that’s keeping me busy.



“I’ve been pretty involved over the last month with the guys in Boone, just going over some things with the new baseball season. That’s kept me pretty busy. It’s amazing how when you have some free time, it fills up pretty quickly.”

Toole spent more than 30 years coaching in Council Bluffs, highlighted by a state championship at T.J. in 1993 and three state berths in his first five seasons at Lewis Central.

He’s seen plenty of success not only with his own teams but also around the city. He acknowledged there’s plenty of quality baseball talent in the area.

“There’s been a rich tradition of baseball, and it’s carried over,” Toole said. “Things can go through cycles where one school has more talent over a period of time than another, but all city schools have talent and have had their moments to shine during the times I was coaching.

“The groundwork had been laid in this community to have strong baseball, and that worked its way all the way up from the youth leagues up to the high school teams, and it showed. It was obvious when I came around in ’86 with T.J.’s tradition with state championships in the past.”

Toole can now sit back, relax and enjoy his retirement. He’ll have the opportunity to watch local baseball instead of coach and to spend more time with his wife Jeanine and children Justin, Eric and Lindsey.

And he knows it will take time to adjust to life off the field.

“It was different going into the spring without having the pitchers and catchers practices and the hitting things that we do in April,” Toole said. “It was more relaxing and enjoying it and moving on to other aspects of baseball that I’m involved in.”

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