BLOOMDALE — After growing up in Pemberville and graduating from rival Eastwood n 1978, coach Kyle Reiser took to Wayne and his name became synonymous with Elmwood baseball.

Reiser is retiring from coaching Elmwood baseball, although he will remain as a teacher, after 32 years at the helm.

Under Reiser’s tutelage, Elmwood won 13 Suburban Lakes League titles in 15 years, including two strings of five consecutive championships.

Reiser’s 2007 team went 26-7 and oddly enough finished second in the SLL at 11-3 but went on to the Division III state tournament.

The Royals defeated Youngstown Ursuline, 3-2, in a semifinal and finished as state runner-up, losing to Heath (22-6), 6-3, in the championship.

“It’s just a special memory. It was a special group of kids and things fell into place,” Reiser said.

However, Reiser says he can look back on any season over the past three decades and take something from it.

“Every season produces memories, so there wasn’t one memory that stood out. I think we had memories every season,” Reiser said.

“It is just a lot of great memories, and it’s not just been about the players. It has been about families.

“I’ve had a lot of players from the same family — brothers, cousins, and a lot of great families in this Elmwood district that I’ve been privileged to be around over the years.

“I’ve heard from a lot of them over the last few days. Now, I’ve been privileged to coach the sons of players who I’ve coached the first time around — second generation players, which is really special.”

Reiser’s Elmwood teams went 588-304, winning 17 league titles, five district titles and one regional championship. Including a year coaching at Tinora, Reiser’s overall record was 594-315 over 33 seasons.

There was no specific coaching style maintained from season to season. Reiser says it always depended on what skills his players brought to the table.

“I think every team is different. I think the key to coaching is to find out what your team is good at and put the right people in the right places,” Reiser said.

“Every year has been different depending on what their strengths are. and you try to play to their strengths and work on the weaknesses. So, there is really not one central theme.

“I think that is the key to coaching is don’t try to (get) people into something they can’t do. Try to give them something they can do and try to that well. Hopefully things mesh and you are successful.”

He credits much of his coaching skills and love for the game to his father, Joe Reiser, a well-known baseball man who coached the Pemberville youth baseball teams Reiser played for.

“Dad did a lot of coaching. He was the Lake coach and ended up being the Legion coach and loved the game of baseball and I think instilled that into us kids,” Reiser said.

“He made it fun, and he passed on a lot of great knowledge in not only how to play the game but how to handle people.

“I think that was a big, important part of what I gained from my dad over the years was how to talk to people and how to treat people, and I tried to carry that on in my coaching.”

Reiser’s junior year, in 1977, he helped lead Eastwood to the regional finals, where they lost to Coldwater.

Coldwater and Midwest Athletic Conference schools can be a thorn in the side to any school at the regional or state level, but as a coach at Elmwood, the Royals were able to subdue the Cavaliers a couple times.

“Coldwater has been around in my lifetime a long time. We were able to knock them off a couple times when they were No. 1 in the state,” Reiser said.

Reiser played baseball at Bowling Green State University before going on to coaching, although he already had experience coaching youth teams as a teenager.

In his first season coaching at Elmwood, which gave him his first teaching job, his team went 14-6 overall and 11-3 in the SLL, good enough for a 1985 league championship.

He coached two more years, finishing third in the league both times, and then went on to coach under Pat Quinn at Ball State University for two years and under Don Purvis at BGSU for one season.

In addition, Reiser coached wood-bat summer collegiate baseball for the Bowling Green Breeze under then-Penn State University head coach Joe Hindelang in the early 1990s.

The Breeze, which produced multiple major leaguers and even more minor league baseball players, played in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League. Reiser said he learned from Quinn, Purvis, and Hindelang, among others.

After coaching collegiately, he returned to take the coaching position at Elmwood in 1991, and his first five season the Royals won SLL titles.

“I think I’ve taken something from every coach. When I was at Ball State, Pat Quinn, I took some things from him,” Reiser said.

“When I was at Bowling Green, Don Purvis, the way he ran things and things were first class, and the way you handled yourself and the way you represented the school. Those came into play.

“Joe Hindelang with the Breeze, I picked things up from him, and countless number of clinics and talking to other coaches,” Reiser continued.

“I think in the coaching fraternity, we all share ideas. I think you gain things from everybody you come into contact with,” he added.

Most of all, Reiser said he is grateful to the Elmwood district and his family for giving him the opportunity.

“I’m indebted to them for giving me a chance to be a part of that school district, to be a teacher and a coach, and they treated me very well over the years,” Reiser said. “I’m just indebted to my family — my wife and kids for all their sacrifices over the years and giving me a chance to coach the game that I love.

“Thank God for the opportunity to put me where he put me, to be in this community, and it’s been really good to me.”