Staff report
Former Lehman and Sidney Post 217 American Legion baseball coach Wayne Shoffner was inducted into the Miami Valley Baseball Coaches Association Sunday during ceremonies at Crowne Plaza in Dayton.
Shoffner is also a well-known umpire not only in this area, but also the entire state. He has been an umpire for 44 years and was actually inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Miami Valley umpire.
He has umpired 14 regional tournament games and 10 state championship games.
He spent 10 years as the head coach at Lehman, from 1990 to 2000, and twice took his Cavalier teams to the state tournament, finishing runner-up in both 1991 and 1998.
He also coached Sidney American Legion, and took his teams to the State Legion Tournament in 1995, 1998 and 2006.
In addition, he coached a Sidney Acme team to the state tournament in 1992.
Shoffner said the best teams he has umpired games for include the 2007 Fort Loramie Redskins, adding that “Minster is always tough, Coldwater several years, and Vandalia Butler is always good.”
He gave a long list of the best coaches he has worked with, including Bill Sturwold of Fort Loramie, Lou Brunswick, former Sidney and present Lehman coach Dave King, Mike Wiss of Minster, and the later Jim Hardman of Piqua.
King and Sturwold are also members of the Hall of Fame too.
The best players he has watched? Jared Hoying of Fort Loramie, now with the Texas Rangers; Mike Smith of Piqua and Zac Richard of Versailles.
Shoffner served two years in the Army in Vietnam and was awarded two Purple Heats and two Bronze Stars.
He and his wife of 48 years have two sons, Kevin and Bill, and six grandchildren.
Bill presented his father at the awards ceremony.
Tony Metzler
In addition to the Hall of Fame honor for Shoffner, Anna High School assistant coach Tony Metzler was named the Assistant Coach of the Year for last season.
Metzler has 15 years of coaching experience, including as an assistant from 2002 to 2008 at Sidney. He was the head coach at Piqua for one year and the head coach at Sidney for two years after that. He has been an assistant at Anna since 2014.
