MEDFORD BASEBALL - After a quick 20 years, Hraby decides it’s time to step away
MEDFORD BASEBALL
Longevity is becoming a rare thing in the high school coaching ranks, though Taylor County is an exception with eight head coaches at its three schools having at least 15 seasons under their belts at the end of the 2023-24 school year.
One of those eight, however, did decide it was time to bring in a reliever over the summer.
Justin “Judd” Hraby turned in his resignation in July as the Medford Raiders’ head baseball coach, a couple weeks after also leaving his position as Medford Area Middle School principal. From the school side, he’s scaling back to a position as a Rural Virtual Academy social studies teacher for grades 78. From the coaching perspective, he’s not sure yet what lies ahead, but the timing was right to step down from a position he’s held with a passion for what seems like an unbelievably quick 20 years.
“It went really fast,” Hraby said Tuesday.
“It does honestly seem like yesterday that we started up and I got the call in July that I was the new head baseball coach. There was a lot of excitement right away obviously. It went fast. There are so many good memories. Just trying to look back on them I did my best to kind of document and keep track. It went fast.
What made it go even faster was eventually having a kid in the program. These last four years just flew by. But it was a good 20 years. Most people don't believe it either.”
Hraby’s teams compiled a 277-190-1 record and he very well may have hit 300 wins had it not been for the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the Covid pandemic. On paper, Medford appeared to have one of its strongest teams that year, but the Raiders will never know what might have been. Medford won six Lumberjack or Great Northern Conference titles (2006, 2007, 2008, 2019, 2021 and 2023) under Hraby’s direction and five WIAA Division 2 regional championships (2006, 2007, 2010, 2021 and 2024). Each time Medford went to a sectional tournament it won its semifinal game to reach the sectional final, where the Raiders went 1-4, including this year when Medford lost 7-5 to La Crosse Logan in his final game.
Medford went to state in Hraby’s second year, 2006. He coached in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association’s All-Star weekend in 2015, coached this past Sunday in the Wisconsin American Legion All-Star Game and has coached nine players who were named to the WBCA All-Star event, including his son Tanner, who just graduated and plans to play collegiately at UW-River Falls.
With Tanner leaving and twin daughters Laney and Rylee having two years of threesport competition left at Medford Area Senior High, Hraby said it became clear to him after the season, this was the time.
“I joke and say 20 is a nice round number, but that really that had nothing to do with it,” Hraby said. “Obviously a big reason is family. I’ve missed out on a lot of family things. I missed out on a lot of things for my girls over the years, not just when they’re in high school playing softball but a lot of other things. The other big thing was Tanner and him playing college baseball. That was a big reason too to be able to watch him and follow him. I could’ve done it, but I don’t like to do anything halfway. Other that than there wasn’t really anything pushing me out, it was more about what was pulling me toward it.”
Hraby’s imprint on Medford baseball is large. Not only did he have success with the high school program, but the youth and American Legion programs expanded greatly, particularly in the last 10-15 years with the growth of travel programs at various age levels and increased participation in the local Little League program. He expects his presidency of the Medford Area Little League Association to end next week at the group’s next meeting.
“I'll still be involved in some way, shape or form in both the Little League program and the high school,” Hraby said. “Legion I haven't really decided on. Either way I think I'll still help with the behind-the-scenes stuff.”
The expansion of Medford’s baseball program started with the creation of the Legion program in 2007. A joint program with Rib Lake and Medford, led by Rib Lake’s Dick Iverson had a good run for about a decade, but eventually didn’t have enough room for all who wanted to play. Medford’s top Legion team has now gone to the state tournament in five of the past six seasons and reached the 2024 Class AA championship round last week.
“The game changer was the Legion program,” Hraby said. The program had three teams this summer. “Every year we've had success at the Legion level it’s spilled into the spring. I knew it would this year but I didn’t know it would get to the level that it did. It gave those guys a lot of confidence. That’s probably what I’m most proud of is the Legion program and where that's at.”
High school sports is supposed to be a learning experience, and Hraby said it’s not just for the players. Medford’s varsity teams have a 114-28 record since 2019, including this past year’s unexpected 25-4 record and run to the sectional final thanks to three come-from-behind, walk-off wins in WIAA tournament play. The more recent success may have coincided with a change in Hraby’s coaching approach.
“If I knew then what I know now, not just the x’s and o’s and the drills and the fundamentals and all that. Anybody could say that,” Hraby said. “But it’s how to just enjoy the moments. Having that success early on always made me look at the end. We have to do this if we’re going to get this regional seed. How do we win regionals, get to the sectional or win conference. Now I would say in the last five or six years, it’s always been let’s win this game and have fun today. Let’s have a lot of fun in practice, let’s work hard, but let’s have fun and we’ll worry about tomorrow when we get to tomorrow.”
Staying in the moment and being surrounded by quality people, particularly family led by his wife Brenda, helped Hraby navigate what often was an incredibly hectic time. While coaching and getting the Legion and Little League programs going, he also has held positions of high school assistant principal, high school athletic director and middle school assistant principal and principal.
“I always had some really good people around me whether it was assistant coaches, players doing their thing, especially if I couldn't be at practice right away, Dan (Kraschnewski) and the guys just got things going,” he said. “They know the routine. At work too, just having good people around me who understood and knew that I loved doing it. They were easy to work with and very supportive of that. I was fortunate. Being an administrator in a school district and coaching that's not always something that is allowed. I was very thankful that Pat Sullivan allowed me to do it. He knew that I was very passionate about baseball and he knew that I'd do a good job.”
That passion for baseball won’t ever go away. Hraby has vivid memories of many of his 468 high school games he coached, especially the post-season games, whether it was the highs of the 2006 sectional championship won in Altoona, a 2010 sectional upset win over Seymour, this year’s dramatic wins over Rice Lake, Ashland and Merrill or the lows of the 2019 regional final loss to eventual state champion Antigo and the crushing 2022 regional final game at bitter rival Mosinee that the Raiders were one strike away from winning in one of the most exciting high school games one will ever see. Other top memories include things like the games several teams were able to play at places like American Family Field in Milwaukee or the old Metrodome in Minneapolis, seeing kids set records or throw no-hitters and, naturally, being able to coach Tanner and his group of friends at the high school level the last four years.
“My passion for baseball obviously kept me coming back no matter what,” Hraby said.
“No matter if we were 20-6 or 4-15. I just love the game of baseball. The guys that I have had over the years, whether they were really talented or not, they were great kids, they worked hard and they always bought in to what we were trying to do. They couldn’t always execute it, but they always bought in.
You probably won’t hear too many coaches say this, but the parents. Some people say that's what drives people out of coaching.
That was never the case for me. We always had great parents, people who were always willing to help out to support us. They may not always have agreed with the things we did. But they were always easy to talk to and understood what we were trying to do. They helped out a lot whether it was helping with the field, concessions, those extra things we did, planning and organizing those. The kids got to where they needed to be for everything.
“Those are three things I’ll miss. And obviously the competitive part of it will be the big one. Showing up to the game and getting ready to compete against whoever it is. There are just so many relationships there with other coaches.”
