By David Fleet
dfleet@mihomepaper.com
Goodrich — When the Goodrich Varsity Baseball team takes the diamond this spring a new veteran head coach will be at the helm.
Ben Almasy, a 2021 Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee who tallied a career record of 592-163-4 over almost three decades will take over following the retirement of long time coach Bob Foreback at the end of last season.
“When I get eight wins here at Goodrich and make it to 600 we’ll keep it under the table,” said Almasy, 49, who brings 11 league, 10 district, four regional titles and one state championship final to Goodrich.
“I’m excited to go to work this season at Goodrich. Everyone has been welcoming and made me feel at home. I’m familiar with the area, and coached many Goodrich kids in the summer with travel baseball. I know what I’m getting into here, the Martian kids are easy to coach and I could not pick a better place to finish my career.”
Almasy, 49, played baseball at Mt. Morris and spent one season there as an assistant before getting the head coaching job at Hamady High School. After leading the Hamady Hawks for a year, he stepped in at Flint Southwestern coaching for the 1998-99 season.
Almasy worked for about five years in collegiate baseball along with travel teams before heading back to the high school ranks at Mt. Morris from 2005-2015.
Almasy attended Adrian College and finished his degree at the University of Michigan-Flint in 1997. When not coaching baseball he served as an interventionist high school teacher, not working in the classroom, rather one-on-one with students.
He then coached at New Lothrop High School from 2016 until 2022 and took the Hornets to the Division 3 state championship game before losing to Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett.
In 2022 he was diagnosed with NASH, a nonalcoholic fatty liver steatohepatitis.
“First they told me I needed a liver transplant in about 10 years,” said Almasy. “It was scary but I was not immediately worried, but during the 2022 season I got really sick spending a lot of time in and out of the hospital. Rather than having 10 years to get a transplant, I have 10 months left on earth.”
Word of Almasy’s need for a liver spread statewide. Finally, the mother of a former travel baseball player was a perfect match.
“She donated half of her liver and that kept me here on earth,” he said.
On Jan. 9, 2023, Almasy had the successful transplant surgery. His recovery was very fast and by June he was back at baseball practice. He retired from teaching due to his illness.
“I had a couple offers from schools to get back into coaching,” he said. “But I wanted to go to a school that would be my final coaching position. I knew Bob (Foreback) was going to retire, I knew the kids at Goodrich work ethic along with a community that was all in with the program. Goodrich is the place to be and a great fit. It’s a lot like New Lothrup.”
As head coach at New Lothrop, Almasy played against Goodrich when they both were in the Genesee Area Conference.
“I played Goodrich 51 times,” he said. “We ended up 25-26, and he won the last game (5-4) we played. You had to be perfect when you played Goodrich. Mentally Goodrich teams did the right thing. Coach Darby will return along with coach Jeff Gould, who are good baseball people.”