Players from year one through the senior class from 2024 with several year's represented in-between made it a special night on Oct. 2 at the Wayne Softball Complex for head coach Rob Sweetland.
It has been more than just the game but about how to be a good person and that hard work will pay off if you put in the time.
Coach Sweetland said to hear how many of them wanted to stay in the sport and wanted to coach is the biggest compliment a coach can have.
"They want to affect peoples lives in a positive way," said Sweetland. "Because they love the game and they know what it did for them. To relay that to younger girls is really gratifying and to see a lot of our girls in the coaching ranks is testament how they feel what it did for them."
Coach Sweetland was able to instill several life lessons to his players who are now putting in place during their day-to-day life and with their families.
Over 770 games have been played by a Wayne High softball team dating back to 2002 and all have been coached by Rob Sweetland.
Following the game current assistants Kiley Koch and Lauren Gilliland spoke to the crowed on what coach Sweetland meant to them. Others who spoke were former player Caitlin (Fehringer) Simon, past athletic director Rocky Ruhl, past coach Kevin Hill as well as Laura Gamble and his family wife Jill, son Shea and daughter Taytum.
Coach Sweetland said it was special to hear everyone from family to friends, assistant coaches along with parents and players who were involved within the program.
"It was real touching," said Sweetland. "I kind of knew something was going down when I looked out in the crowd throughout the game and saw all the different faces that normally don't attend the games because they live in different cities."
The Titiml's brought out their vehicle in the pitchers circle and provided the music for the slideshow where more than 400 photos were shared.
Coach Sweetland was able to reminisce on all the accomplishments that each team had from conference to district, weekend tournaments and state hardware.
"Some of the girls came up and would talk about some of the pictures they saw," said Sweetland. "There might have been some things that they remembered that I didn't that they reminded me of."
Special messages within the slideshow came from NEN (Pender/Wisner-Pilger) softball coach Clay Haymart as well as Blue Devil alum Kendall Dorey and Kayla Fleming.
Even with a 3-1 loss to GACC that evening, it was flooded with all the memories from past players to the present team and future of Blue Devil softball.
Wayne is now 19-10 entering postseason play on Oct. 9 in Grand Island.
Before closing out the night at the complex, coach Sweetland dug up homeplate where players were able to sign a piece of memorabilia that he will cherish forever.
With a recent win over GACC in West Point on Sept. 27, Wayne High softball captured their 10th Mid State Conference title (out of 17) under coach Sweetland along with winning all by one home tournament in his career following a 3-0 Wayne Invite finish earlier in the season.
To date, Rob Sweetland, has coached in seven state championships (winning four), been to state 18 times in 23 years and is the winningest high school coach in Nebraska softball history (620-152).
Coach Sweetland was also a finalist for National Softball Coach of the Year and has presented at the Nebraska Coaches Association Coaches Clinic among many other coaching accomplishments.
Coach Sweetland would like to thank all those who attended their final home game and to those players and individuals who reached out to him through text who couldn't make it.
One day he'll sit back and look back to all of the great times and wouldn't trade it for anything.
"I probably could have hung it up before but I just enjoyed the younger players that we had at the time and wanted to keep coaching them as long as I was still teaching, said Sweetland."
Coach Sweetland first began teaching at Wayne Community Schools in 1997.
He currently teaches seventh and eighth grade physical education and health.
His first year teaching, he coached seventh grade football followed by freshman basketball.
He'll also be entering his 12th season as the head boys varsity basketball coach this winter.
