Senior Sean Stewart will get one final chance to play for Ankeny Centennial baseball coach Mark Hey.
Stewart has been named to the Large Schools West team that will compete in the 2024 Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association All Star Series on Thursday through Saturday at Pella High School, which will host the event for the first time. Hey will serve as the head coach for the Large Schools West.
“It’ll be fun to play for coach Hey one more time after all the hard work we’ve put in together over the past four years,” said Stewart.
Stewart, a pitcher and outfielder, helped the Jaguars to a 29-11 record this season. He was selected to the CIML Conference second team and to the Class 4A North Central all-district second team.
Stewart posted a 7-1 mark with a 2.03 ERA and 62 strikeouts while also batting .231 with a double and nine RBIs. The Iowa Central recruit tied the school record for most wins in a season, equaling the mark set by three others.
Stewart’s former teammate, Easton Pratt, also went 7-1 a year ago and went on to play for the Large Schools West in the All Star Series. Pratt was named his team’s MVP.
Stewart said he knows many of the players on the Large Schools West roster.
“I have gotten to know lots of the guys over the years of travel ball growing up and going through the recruiting process,” he said. “We have a very good team!”
Hey has won 569 games in his career, including 257 since he moved across town to begin Centennial’s program in 2013. He guided the Jaguars to a school-record 30 victories in 2023.
Hey started his coaching career at Ackley-Geneva in 1990-91 before spending one year at Battle Creek-Ida Grove. He was an assistant at Ankeny from 1993-2003 before taking over the Hawks’ program in 2004.
Hey led Ankeny to some of the best seasons in school history over the next decade, including a Class 4A runner-up finish in 2005, when the Hawks hit a school-record 67 home runs–the second-highest total in state history. His 2012 team cruised to the state title and finished with a 43-2 record, the most wins for the state’s largest class since the four-class system was adopted in 1982.
Hey, who was inducted into the IHSBCA Hall of Fame earlier this year, will be assisted this weekend by Blake Heitmeier of Carlisle and Nick Steenhagen of Ames.
