Zach Winn
Equinox Staff
Keene State College baseball coach Ken Howe is surprisingly calm as he watches his junior varsity team in their second game of a Sunday double-header. This is in stark contrast to his usually frantic game day temperament. Like most home games this season, today at Owl Stadium is a family affair; on this intensely sunny day there are four Howes in attendance.
Ken is sandwiched between his wife and mother as the bleachers offer a blinding reflection in every direction. The other Howe, Dustin, isn’t sitting with his family because he’s busy playing first base for his dad’s team.
Contributed photo / Chris Palermo / Sports information
Athletic Director John Ratliff awards Ken Howe his 500 game win plaque before a game against Daniel Webster on April 25, 2013 at Owl Athletic Complex.
Ken Howe recently won his five-hundredth game with KSC, and as his twenty-seventh season at KSC winds down, he finds his work life and home life blending more than ever before.
It’s a development the coach says he couldn’t be happier about and it has him thinking he could coach another 27 years.
“Personally, I’d like to stay here until it’s time to put me into the ground,” Howe said. “But of course I don’t know how the administration feels about that.”
Coach Howe doesn’t seem to have much to worry about, athletic director John Ratliff made it clear the coach who’s been here since 1986 hasn’t overstayed his welcome.
“I just hope he’s here for many more years,” Ratliff said. “I’d like to see him get his thousandth win here.” It makes sense that Howe would retire at KSC, in a lot of ways his career has come full circle.
Howe was a three-sport athlete for the Keene High Blackbirds growing up, but when major league dreams and a baseball scholarship led him to the University of Central Florida, there was little hope that he would be returning to Keene again.
That all changed in his second season at UCF, when a severe hamstring tear forced him to reevaluate what he wanted to do in life.
So the next year Howe came home and played soccer and baseball at KSC while he got his business management degree.
Believe it or not, Howe first got his coaching chops on the women’s soccer team.
“I actually played for [current men’s soccer coach] Ron Butcher,” Howe said. “And then I coached [current women’s soccer coach] Denise Lyons.”
But long fall days on the soccer field just could never compare to the baseball diamond for Howe, and after holding both the head coaching position on the soccer team and the co-coaching position on the baseball team, Howe finally took over as head baseball coach full time in 1990. It’s a position he’s cherished ever since.
“I’ve always preferred the baseball field,” Howe said. “I just feel better about my baseball abilities.”
But that doesn’t mean his soccer experience was a waste of time. Howe said he learned a lot about how to deal with different personalities from his time working with the girls’ soccer team.
“At that point I was a young coach, and it was all pretty much new to me,” Howe recalled. “I learned how to treat people differently. It probably got me to calm down a little bit, a little less running and screaming.”
Although the people he works with say they can’t imagine him doing much more yelling than he already does, it’s clear his experiment with soccer had a positive effect on Howe.
“[Howe’s] been around for a long time. He has a ton of accolades and he’s helped a ton of people,” assistant coach Jon Raiola said.
Truthfully Howe’s biggest legacy might have nothing to do with win totals.
The coach has made it a point to be involved with the Keene community he grew up in.
In the summers, Howe runs baseball camps for local kids, teaching them fundamentals but also giving them something constructive to do in an area Howe knows can get awful quiet.
John Ratliff understands the importance of Howe’s work.
“It’s real significant. I think we draw better [crowds] than any other Division III program that I’ve seen,” Ratliff said.
“I think that’s a product of the coaches being involved in the community.”
Howe didn’t run camps the last two seasons because his assistants were coaching summer leagues, but this year he’s trying to organize an event with the college prospects in the area.
“We’re looking at high school-aged kids doing a showcase-type thing with other coaches,” Howe explained.
“Just to help the recruiting process for those kids who might get overlooked.”
But for now Howe has his hands full with his own team.
The past few years wins have come easy for the coach, who has regular season win totals of 32, 29, 27, 25 and 34 since 2008 respectively.
After graduating nine seniors last year, however, his young team has been streaky all season while trying to find their identity.
Sitting at 18-18 might not be ideal, but the impression is things could be worse for Howe as he leans back against the sun-cooked bleachers with his family.
It’s easy to understand why Howe says long-term win totals aren’t that important to him. He’s enjoying the moment.
“I think I’m at 504 wins right now,” Howe says. “I just hope I make it to 505.”
Zach Winn can be contacted at
zwinn@keene-equinox.com