New Richland Baseball Field to be Renamed and Dedicated Saturday

The baseball field in New Richland will take on a new identity Saturday when it is becomes Jeff Reese Field in honor of the longtime coach.

A field dedication is set for about 11:45AM on Saturday. Reese coached the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Panthers for more than 30 years and entered the Minnesota Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009. Reese is a 1973 graduate of the district. He played college baseball at Waldorf College for two years, earning all-conference honors. Reese also played at Wisconsin-Stevens Point, graduating in 1977, according to biographical information on the hall of fame website.

Reese came back to his alma mater to coach in 1979. His teams won about a dozen conference titles, numerous subsection championships and finished as a section runner-up several times.

He has been involved in all levels of baseball in New Richland. He started the summer youth program and coached the Legion and Babe Ruth teams.

Current Panthers coach Drew Paukert hopes many of Reese's former players come out for the dedication. "So that will be exciting. We expect a decent crowd with former NRHEG Panthers players in attendance to honor Jeff and all the great things he has done for our program."

NRHEG will play PACT Charter School in a 12PM game Saturday after the field dedication.