UIL Baseball State Tournament
Dell Diamond, Round Rock
Class 6A semifinals, Friday
Southlake Carroll (33-6) vs. Conroe The Woodlands (25-14-1), 4 p.m.
Reagan (36-7) vs. Cypress Ranch (32-8-2), 7 p.m.
Championship game: Saturday, 4 p.m.
Baseball is not as much a sport as it is a way of life for Reagan coach Chans Chapman, whose love for the game is in his family’s DNA.
Born and raised in Hallettsville, a town of about 2,600 located about 115 miles east of San Antonio, Chapman cut his teeth watching his father and an uncle play in summer leagues. That uncle would go on to become one of the best high school baseball coaches in state history.
“I went into coaching because of my dad and my uncle,” said Chapman, who is completing his 14th season as head coach at Reagan.
By the time Chapman was in elementary school, making the trip to Austin for the UIL state tournament at Disch-Falk Field with his parents, brother and sister was a rite of spring for the family.
“We went every year,” Chapman said this week. “It was great.”
So imagine the rush that poured over Chapman when he finally got to play in the state tournament as a junior in 1992. Although Hallettsville lost in the Class 3A semifinals, the experience was a thrill.
“Oh, man, it was emotional for all of us,” Andy Chapman, Chans’ father, said Wednesday. “To see him on the field after all those years we had watched the state tournament together was special.”
Twenty-six years later, Chans Chapman has Reagan in the state tournament for the second year in a row and third time in five seasons. The Rattlers have lost in the Class 6A title game in their previous two appearances.
Reagan (36-7) plays Cypress Ranch (32-8-2) in the 6A semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.
“It’s always exciting to make it to the state tournament because you don’t know when, or if you’ll get back,” Chapman said. “I’m happy that our players are going to have that experience again. They’ve worked hard for it.”
The Chapman family has been well represented at the state tournament since the 1990s. Chans’ younger brother, Will, made two appearances with Hallettsville and won a championship in 1997.
Their uncle, Steve Chapman, has been the family's biggest winner. He has made Corpus Christi Calallen synonymous with high school baseball supremacy since taking over the program in the fall of 1982. The Wildcats won three state championships and made 12 state tournament appearances, all in a 19-year span from 1993-2011, during Chapman’s tenure.
“I started going to my uncle’s games when I was a kid,” said Chans, 43. “I remember watching Calallen play Robstown and the big crowds those games drew. We went to other games, but the Robstown games stick out the most because of the intensity, the crowds, the knowledge of the fans. They know how the game is supposed to be played. It was intense. I’ve also been at the state tournament every year my uncle has been there.”
Steve Chapman has gone 1,016-228-3 in 36 seasons – all at Calallen. Only one other coach in Texas high school baseball history has won 1,000 games. Bobby Moegle went 1,115-267 in 40 seasons (1960-99) at Lubbock Monterey before retiring. In 2013, he became the first high school baseball coach inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
Steve and Andy Chapman both played baseball at Hallettsville High School. Steve, 62, continued his career at Mary Hardin-Baylor before landing his first coaching job at Victoria Stroman in 1979. Andy, 63, went to work in the oil fields after graduating from high school, but his love for baseball never waned.
“In the summers, Steve and I would play ball,” Andy said. “Chans followed us wherever we went. That’s just the way it was.”
Mary Chapman chuckled when she was asked about her husband’s love for baseball.
“I knew early on that baseball was going to dictate our life,” she said. “I tell people that we have two seasons in this family. We have deer season and we have baseball season. And not much in between.”
Andy attributes his family’s passion for baseball to his late father, Carl “Banks” Chapman.
“All of my father’s friends called him Banks because he liked to fish from the river bank,” Andy said. “But when it came to baseball, that was it. He loved it and he passed that on to my brother and me. I still remember the day he bought me a Mickey Mantle glove and Steve a Sandy Koufax glove. You don’t forget things like that.”
Chans is the oldest of the three children in his family. His sister, Leslie, is the youngest of the siblings. Mary went to college and earned her master’s degree, working as a teacher for 29 years before retiring.
“Mary was always great about being supportive,” Andy said. “She knew how important baseball was to us and she got involved, too. It’s a family thing with us.”
Steve and Chans Chapman are so close that neither can speak of the other without getting emotional when they’re asked about the pride they take in the other’s success.
“It makes me very proud to see the job Chans has done at Reagan,” Steve said. “We talk all the time about baseball and other things going on. I know how hard he works. I see a lot of the things that he does that are special, like getting his teams to play with a lot of intensity.”
Mary Chapman described Steve and Chans as kindred spirits.
“They are very close,” she said. “What one feels, the other one feels. When one gets hurt, the other one feels it, you know? If something good happens to one of them, the other one feels happier than he would for himself.”
Steve Chapman said he will be at the Reagan-Cypress Ranch semifinal game Friday night “with bells on.” The entire family, including Mary and Andy’s six grandchildren, will be in the stands cheering on the Rattlers.
“I hope it goes better Friday night than it has the last two times they’ve been at the state tournament,” Steve said. “It’s not easy to win state. I won it in my sixth time there.”
Chapman guided Calallen to state titles in 2000, 2005 and 2008.
“I was there for all three of those championships,” Chans said.
The Wildcats also reached the state tournament in 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2010, and 2011. They have lost in the title game five times (1998, 1999, 2002, 2010, 2011).
Chans, who has a 425-102 career record, is well on his way to joining his uncle in the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame after building a powerhouse program at Reagan. The Rattlers have never missed the playoffs in their 14 seasons under Chans, who was head baseball coach at Garrison for one season before landing the Reagan job.
Naturally, Chans has been on the phone regularly with his uncle this week.
“I’ll pick his brain about some things,” Chans said. “I’ll ask him how he would handle things in different situations. Fortunately, he’s been able to see us play a little bit, so he’s kind of got a feel for our team. I’ll take anything I can get, especially from him with the success that they’ve had.”
Reagan played its three-game series against Laredo Alexander in the regional semifinals at Calallen, and Steve was in the stands for Game 1 against Churchill last Thursday at Wolff Stadium.
Chans holds an 8-4 edge in the 12 games he and his uncle have played against each other. Chans had one word to describe what it’s like to coach against one of the best high school baseball coaches in state history: “Stressful.”
But as he and his uncle would attest, it’s all part of the game they love.