Jon Gambee just can’t let go of baseball.
After hinting at retiring last spring and resigning his varsity coaching job for Martin, he has re-entered the game as volunteer assistant baseball coach for the Wayland freshman team, which is under new management. Rob Hamly was hired as new head coach last summer, succeeding Chad Wilcox.
Gambee, a 1965 graduate of Wayland High School and Vietnam veteran, has coached the sport over many decades. In the 1970s and early ’80s he was the coach of the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Cougars and he resurfaced several years later as the head coach at Gull Lake High School. A longtime employee of the Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home, he finally retired from that job and took over a summer baseball team and was hired as Martin head coach in 2013.
Gambee played baseball for Wayland High School in the 1960s. He also coached women’s softball and basketball at KVCC and was athletic director.
Gambee said he will focus on teaching the Young Wildcats baserunning and will work directly under freshman coach Mike Greenlund.
I wish Jon many more years of service to the youth of the Wayland area. May they be joyful and filled with the building of athletic skills and strong moral character under his care.
Congratulations on your new coaching position. How lucky they are to have someone with so much coaching experience. You’re a Wayland Wildcat once again !!
I would have been proud to have had Jon coach my son in any sport. Wayland HS is indeed lucky to have such a man helping their ballplayers.