Rosner Trying to Make History at Plainfield Central

History is something most baseball fans would like to forget.

Plainfield Central hasn’t had a winning season in more than a decade and the school has gone through five coaches the last 11 years.

Enter John Rosner. A history major before graduating from the University of Illinois-Chicago, he is the ninth coach in Wildcat history.

“I hope to infuse an approach in which we put pressure on the other team both offensively and defensively as much as possible,” Rosner said of his second head coaching job. “Our goal is to win as many games as possible and put ourselves in a position to make a run in the postseason."

Rosner spent the last five years as an assistant baseball coach at under coach John Darlington. The Tigers have won the last three Southwest Prairie Conference championships and are back-to-back regional champions.

In his last season as coach at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, the Fightin’ Irish won their own Class AA regional championship.

Rosner played three varsity seasons at Ottawa-Marquette High School before graduating in 1998.

He led the team in batting average (.500), hits (45), runs scored (33), doubles (nine) and triples (three) as a senior. On the mound, Rosner went 6-3 with a 1.54 ERA and 84 strikeouts in 59 innings pitched.

As a result, Rosner was selected to the Illinois Baseball Coaches Association all-state team. As a junior, Rosner led the Crusaders with a .446 batting average to go along with team-bests of 37 hits, 41 RBI, 39 runs scored and 18 extra-base hits.

He had a 2.33 ERA and struck out 42 batters in 48 innings for the Crusaders, whowent a school-record 25-6.

During his junior and senior seasons, he was perfect in 29 stolen base attempts. For his efforts, Rosner was inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame.

He enjoyed a stellar career at the University of Illinois-Chicago, being named to the all-Midwestern Collegiate and all-Horizon League teams three straight years.

He ranks in the top 10 all-time in hits (sixth with 225), runs (eighth, 158), triples (fourth, 10), hit by pitches(sixth, 30), doubles (seventh, 45) and at-bats (ninth, 680).

Rosner’s .407 batting average in 2002 ranks eighth all-time and was 38th in the nation that year. Included was a 28-game hitting streak.

Incidentally, he was not the leading hitter on the team that year. Current New York Yankee outfielder Curtis Granderson hit a school-record .483.

“My coaching style is a reflection of my college coach at UIC, Mike Dee,” said Rosner, who played three years of football and two years of basketball in high school. “He instilled in me a certain mental approach to the game that I hope to pass on to my players.”

Rosner takes over for Bob Dobbertin, who went 46-74 in four years at Central.