John Dyke heading into retirement after 50 years coaching baseball in central Illinois

EAST PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — He’s has been around baseball a long time.

John Dyke figured that out when he was conducted a youth clinic recently.

“This little guy comes up and says ‘Coach Dyke, you coached my grandpa!’ When a little guy tells you that you coached his grandpa, it says that maybe you have been doing this a while,” said Dyke.

He’s been coaching baseball for 50 years the Peoria area. He started out coaching the Manual High School Manual and Bradley University grad started coaching in 1974.

He started out coaching the Manual and Woodruff PONY League teams while he was in college. He was hired at East Peoria High School where he taught English for 31 years.

He became head baseball coach at EP in the mid-1980’s and had a memorable regional win in 1988.

“We beat Limestone and ended Jim Thome’s season his senior year,” Dyke said with a smile.

He can tell stories about coaching East Peoria’s John Girardi in summer baseball. And tell stories about college baseball because Dyke joined the Bradley coaching staff in 1989 and spent 20 years there.

He’s been a fixture at youth baseball clinics in central Illinois for years. And has helped introduce baseball to inner city youth in Peoria.

“The thing you don’t see in today’s world is eight or nine kids at the sand lot playing ball,” Dyke said. “Just play! They should just go out and play!”

In recent years Dyke coached at Spoon River College in Canton and is now an assistant for Brett Kelley at Illinois Central College. He will retire after this season with dozens of stories, plenty of memories and lots of time spent talking to players in central Illinois.

He says baseball is great for life lessons.

“I love talking to the kids, working with them. The best thing baseball does for a kid is it tells them how to deal with failure. If you hit .300, that means in your ten at-bats, you made seven outs,” said Dyke. “They like people to show them and help point them in the right direction. They want to succeed too.”

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