By Paul D. Bowker<\/p>\n
RIVERSIDE<\/p>\n
Allen Rath, who holds career records in pitching wins and strikeouts at both the University of Iowa and Highland High School, has been notified that his baseball coaching contract at Highland will not be renewed.<\/p>\n
The move prompted procedural questions from Jarrod Longbine, a member of the Highland School Board who is also Rath\u2019s assistant coach, during a School Board session August 10.<\/p>\n
Several days after that meeting, Longbine was also told his coaching contract would not be renewed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was both surprised and disappointed when Activities Director Jody Fink informed me that the decision had been made to not renew my contract,\u201d Longbine told The News. \u201cI have enjoyed my time coaching and teaching the game of baseball to our student-athletes a great deal. I will have fond memories of my time with this program. Most importantly, I am thankful for the wonderful relationships and connections that I have made through this position.\u201d<\/p>\n
When contacted by The News, Fink declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The Huskies had a winning record, 13-12, this year, and lost to Burlington Notre Dame in the second round of the Iowa 1A district tournament.<\/p>\n
Rath began coaching the Huskies in 2024, and his last two Highland teams had winning records.<\/p>\n
The School Board has not yet approved a new coaching staff.<\/p>\n
Longbine, who has been a baseball coach for about 20 years including the last three summers at Highland, questioned why the School Board does not review evaluations of athletic coaches and other non-teacher positions at Highland\u2019s three community schools. Board President Nate Robinson noted that the only position that comes under the direct evaluation of the School Board is the superintendent position, currently held by Spencer Lueders.<\/p>\n
Rath, a pitcher at Highland High School and the University of Iowa, was selected twice in the Major League Baseball Draft, in 1986 by the Cincinnati Reds and in 1989 by the California Angels. An arm injury ended his playing career.<\/p>\n
Rath, a Kalona resident and sales professional, has also coached at Perfect Game USA in Cedar Rapids and at Cedar Rapids Washington High School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Paul D. Bowker RIVERSIDE Allen Rath, who holds career records in pitching wins and strikeouts at both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[96658,5,87928,96659],"class_list":["post-786951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-allen-rath","tag-baseball","tag-highland-huskies","tag-jarrod-longbine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117149270260104707","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}