Gary Bender -

COACH GARY BENDER -- 25 years as a baseball coach at Rock Island High School. He was 10 years as the head sophomore coach where his team won 7 Mississippi Valley Conference Championships. Since 1985, Coach Bender has been the varsity head coach. That year he took the varsity baseball team to the school’s first ever state final appearance in the history of the school. The return visit to the state finals was completed again this past spring in 1997. The team finished 3rd in the state this year which was the best ever, beating his first appearance in 1985 where they finished 8th. Coach Bender’s record while at Rocky is 278 wins and 167 losses. He is nearing a career record of 300 wins and will be the winningest coach in Rocky baseball history. Coach Bender has also received an honor this season as Coach of the Year for the Northern part of the state. He has had over 130 players in his 13 years go on and play college baseball. He has had 19 Division I players and 9 professional players. Coach Bender believes that the Rocky program is one of the finest programs in the state with the finest field around which we wouldn’t have without a lot of hard work from many coaches, players, and friends.