Coach Doug Wellenreiter passed away on Nov. 17, 2020. We extend our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends in loving memory of the energy and wisdom he brought to Maple Leaf baseball.Â
Doug Wellenreiter enters his sixth season as an assistant coach for the Maple Leafs in 2020Â following 35 years of teaching and coaching in Illinois.
Wellenreiter retired in 2014 after spending 27 years at Momence High School as a biology and driver education teacher. He was also the head baseball coach at the high school and junior high school levels and served many years as the varsity assistant in basketball. He finished his high school career with more than 625 wins and six trips to the round of 16 in the state tournament.
In addition to his high-school coaching career, Wellenreiter spent time at the professional level from the fall of 1999 to the spring of 2001 as the pitching coach for the Cook County Cheetahs (now the Windy City Thunderbolts) of the Frontier League. At Cook County, he coached alongside former major leaguers Milt Pappas, Ron LeFlore and Carlos May.
Wellenreiter also spent three years as an assistant basketball coach at Olivet Nazarene University from 1987-1990 under legendary head coach Ralph Hodge. In his second year at ONU, the Tigers advanced to the 1989 NAIA National Basketball Tournament for the first time in school history. Wellenreiter also served as a part-time assistant for the ONU baseball team under head coach Todd Reid in 2007-08.
Wellenreiter earned a bachelor's degree in physical education with minors in biology, health and driver education from Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., in 1979. Five years later, he received his master's degree in physical education from Illinois State University.
Wellenreiter has also been a veteran in the officiating ranks, officiating for 43 years. He is active in baseball, softball and basketball officiating, having worked all three sports at the college level. He was assigned to the IESA state finals in basketball four times.
Following his retirement, Wellenreiter moved to Goshen. He and his wife Kelly are the parents of two daughters: Brooke, who lives in New Paris, Ind., with her husband and two children, and Bria, who lives with her husband and son in Hampton, Virginia.
