Coach Stratton's Hall of Fame video
Mark Stratton was named Drury’s baseball coach on August 23, 2005. At that time Drury Director of Athletics, Dr Edsel Matthews, commented, “Mark is a proven winner and what I like to call a kid magnet. He understands how to build a program, and he understands Drury.” Truer words have never been spoken.
Mark came to Drury resurrecting a program that had been out of commission for decades. He spent his first year recruiting, building and inspiring. One year later he had recruited 28 players, compiled a coaching staff, renovated a downtrodden home field and turned an old feed building into a lavish indoor training facility. In the spring of 2007, the Drury Panther baseball team, in its inaugural season, won the GLVC tournament championship, qualified for the NCAA-II national tournament and finished the season with an overall record of 33-24 and a GLVC record of 22-14. It was an amazing year.
In all, Stratton guided the Panthers for six seasons, going 176-134 (56.8%). His Drury teams never had a losing season. They were 112-74 in conference play, advanced to the GLVC tournament four times and played in two NCAA-II national tournaments. In his six years at the helm, 26 of his players earned all-conference honors, two received GLVC Freshman-of-the-Year honors and 10 were named to all-region teams. He laid the foundation for an 11-year program that has now made five NCAA-II national tournament appearances, won three GLVC tournament championships and three GLVC West Division titles.
Current Panther head coach Scott Nasby, who served as the program’s graduate assistant and assistant under Stratton, had this to say about his mentor, Mark Stratton: “Coach Stratton started our program with three ideals. One, you had to be a good person. Two, you had to be a good student. Three, you had to be able to play. He made sure that every player we had fit those three rules. He has been a mentor to so many men, in the community, at Drury and at Glendale. It has been a pleasure to work with him over the years. He has helped me in my career and so many others in their careers. He was always passionate about the game and his players. But, most importantly, he stressed that family came first.”
Another colleague, who coached against Stratton for many years at the high school level, joined the Panther baseball staff as its first-ever pitching coach. When asked about his former nemesis and best friend, Byron Hagler stated “I’ve got three things to say about Mark. First, Mark was the perfect person to start the Drury baseball program. He had the ability to make something out of nothing....literally. Two, fund raising is a huge deal in small college sports. Especially when you are starting from the beginning. One thing was for certain, Coach Stratton could “sell snow” to an Eskimo and make him think he needed it. He knew everyone and everyone knew him. I have heard him say many times, ‘I’ve been turned down more than a bed sheet but that won’t stop me from approaching yet another prospective booster for donations for the baseball program.’
“Finally,” stated Hagler, “whether it was working alongside him for six years, sitting in the visitors’ dugout managing against him, or being at his home surrounded by friends and family, I have learned that Mark is compassionate, honest, competitive, compelling and confident. He is a great motivator, guidance counselor, a father figure, a master tactician, and the eternal optimist. His communication is clear and concise so that everyone shares the same goals. He has a fantastic sense of humor and he wanted his teams to realize they could have fun and still accomplish their goals. His intensity and decision-making set the tone for our team’s never-say-die attitude. Coach Stratton is a jack of all trades.”
Stratton came to Drury after 13 years as the head baseball coach at Springfield Glendale. He also coached the Glendale American Legion team from 1988-2002, winning the state championship in 1997. He is a 1977 graduate of Southwest Missouri State University and he earned his masters from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1981. A member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Stratton now serves as the General Manager of U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark, Drury’s home field. He has touched many throughout his life at various stops.
But today the Drury Community calls him one of theirs and today he is “All Drury”. Accompanied by the most important part of his life: his family, along with former players, coaches, friends and fans, Mark Stratton is forever enshrined as a member of the Drury Sports Hall of Fame on this day: Saturday, December 2, 2017.
