For one last time, Larry Keeker took his place at the dugout, helping coach McNary’s baseball players.

The home game on Wednesday, May 22, was Keeker’s final time in a coaching role. The game against Bend was his last after 37 years.

Keeker has spent a lifetime in baseball from his days as a T-ball player in Salem to leading high school players, first at North Salem High School and then McNary. He roughly calculates he has coached about 1,500 games.

“I think I’d do this all over again,” Keeker said, reflecting on his baseball and teaching careers. “I was really blessed with my years at North Salem. I was truly blessed with years at McNary.”

Besides retiring from coaching, Keeker is finishing up his teaching career – decades spent helping high school students grasp math.

“He’s as committed to this profession as anyone I’ve ever worked with,” said Principal Scott Gragg.

The Keeker name doesn’t disappear from the McNary baseball program, though.

Keeker’s son, Jordan, moved up from assistant to head baseball coach this year. His father stayed on for one season as an assistant himself.

Larry Keeker was born in Salem and grew up not far from Barrick Field, the North Salem ball field. His father was a mail carrier while his mother worked at home, raising Keeker and his three younger sisters.

He played Little League ball in Salem until fifth grade. 

When he was 11, he earned a spot as an alternate on the district all-star team.

When an all-star broke his foot, the coach called Keeker to bring him on.

Keeker had to turn him down.

“I went swimming one afternoon in a gravel pit. I stepped on glass and cut my foot,” Keeker recalled. “I missed out.”

He played Little League ball in Keizer, which his father helped coach.

He played at Whiteaker Middle School and then for McNary. He also played basketball but he had dreams of playing college baseball.

Keeker, though, went to Oregon State University, initially studying engineering before switching to education. He realized he wasn’t meant for Beaver baseball.

“I had these visions of walking on,” he said. “I never did.”

In college, he focused on turning his ability at math into a career.

He cites math teachers at Whiteaker and McNary with advancing his interest and ability at math.

“I had good math experiences in high school,” he said.

After graduating, Keeker worked starting in 1988 as a substitute teacher in the Salem-Keizer School District and then landed a job at North Salem. He also signed on to help coach baseball and basketball.

In 2002, he transferred to McNary. The opening of West Salem High School caused a shuffle in high school coaching ranks, opening the door for Keeker to coach baseball and basketball at McNary.

He coached both until 2011, when he was named head baseball coach.

Coaching, he said, “helped me stay connected to the school outside the classroom.”

Keeker said high school baseball has changed over the years.

One aspect is more students specializing in one sport. Changes in rules allowed students to take on more practice in their preferred sport outside of the regular season.

“I feel like they are more skilled, with the lessons and training that kids have available to them,” Keeker said. 

Pitching and hitting from student athletes has gotten stronger, he said.

He said his own approach to coaching evolved as well. He learned to focus on players as individuals.

“You get so locked into the fundamentals and the game and the techniques,” he recounted. “Sometimes that personal connection gets lost – you forget about them as just people.”

He said he matured as a coach to recognize his impact on players.

“You’re trying to model things like camaraderie, dependability, being accountable for the people around you,” he said. “Being a good teammate is probably more important than the game itself.”

He has many good memories of the baseball years.

There was McNary’s state baseball championship in 2009, made sweeter because Keeker’s son was a senior player on the team.

There was the playoff game in 2014, when McNary hosted a tough Lake Oswego team. The Celts won in an underdog victory. The pitcher that year was Mickey Walker, now with his family’s baseball operation with the Salem Mavericks.

Gragg said Keeker has been a leader in teaching as well.

“He is the definition of McNary Celtic. He’s invested in our students, mentoring and the example he sets for our staff,” he said.

Keeker taught geometry, spending time before and after school to help students, Gragg said.

Keeker intends to continue helping the community. His family remains in Keizer. His wife, Angie, retired two years ago after teaching math at Whiteaker. His daughter, Taylor Miller, is a teacher at Keizer Elementary School.

His son, by the way, also teaches math at McNary.

Keeker said the idea of retirement has been brewing for a couple of years.

“I felt like the program itself really needed a breath of fresh air,” he said. “It was a little bit more challenging to get highly motivated each year….I knew that I needed to step aside.”

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