By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

Bob Pettit is well-known in the area for the homebuilding business he and his wife, Ginny, founded 52 years ago, but the person Bob Pettit is so much more than a businessman.

Many people associate his name with his years of coaching softball in Geneseo and as the softball coach at Geneseo High School.

An area that is synonymous with his name is with coaching the Geneseo High School girls’ softball program.

The GHS softball program will celebrate its 50th year in 2024, and the anniversary also celebrates Pettit’s 25th year of coaching at the high school level…But that wasn’t the beginning of his softball coaching career.

His coaching pathway began when the Pettit’s oldest daughters were playing youth softball in the early 1980’s and they asked if their dad would coach…”Eventually, they wanted to pursue travel ball,” he said.

At that time, the Geneseo travel softball team was the Hurricanes, a 16-18-year old group coached by Butch Gernant.

‘We started teams for younger girls where we coached the 12u Cyclones and 15u Tornadoes,” Pettit explained. “With moves to the QC teams, Heartland Lil Hearts and the Quad City Blazers, we rapidly improved the quality of our game and players. By about 1995, we had a high quality team called “Illinois Xtreme Softball,” that was having success at the National level.”

Many of the players on the Xtreme team were Geneseo players and Pettit said, “We wanted this success to continue through the high school season.”

That was when Pettit applied for and was hired as the JV softball coach at GHS, a position he took in 1998, which also marked the 25th year of softball at Geneseo High School.

“Since we will be celebrating our 50th year of softball this next year, 1974-2024, I am honored to have been a part of the coaching staff for the entire second half of the high school softball program,” he said. “Softball has changed a great deal in those 50 years and continues to change each year.”

His pride in the players he has coached is evident in his comments, and he said, “The players of those first 25 years represented the area well – winning 304 of 573 games (53%). As the sport has continued to grow in the 24 years since, the Lady Leafs have also grown to be victorious 637 times in 854 tries (75%). With 941 total victories, the celebration for 1000 will be right around the corner.”

The Lady Leafs teams have had many outstanding players and coaches, and numerous former players have returned to coach at the high school level and for the traveling teams in the Green Xtreme system. Pettit shared,”We currently have 10 Green Xtreme teams at ages from 8u to 18u, several coached by former players. We also have four to five each year at the high school level that played in our system. The old timers, the constants that I’ve bee able to rely on over the last 25 years, are our pitching Coach Mike Kernan and “Mr. Geneseo” Jesse Dobbels. Words don’t describe the enormous contributions, value and dedication that they have provided over the last quarter century.”

In 2022, Geneseo Middle School played its inaugural softball season and is now underway in the its second season…Pettit credited head middle school coach Jenni Johnson and said, “She stood up and advocated for starting the program and is doing a wonderful job building a fine system.”

“The success of the Lady Leafs softball program has been a nice bonus, but I truly feel that each of our coaches believe the real reason we coach is the great relationships built over the years and the opportunity we have on a daily basis to teach and guide young people in a positive direction in life,” he said. “We all have disappointments, but the successes make it all worth it.”

Pettit said, “Much notoriety has come from our business and athletic activities, but Ginny and I find great peace and joy in our involvements with “of course our family, but also our church (St .Malachy’s), TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) program, FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), and several organizations that help special needs children of God.”

He added, “We firmly believe tht our amazing God created each of us with specific purpose in life and we are so grateful that our purposes have brought us closet to Him, His peace and joy and to so many wonderful people.

Lori Gilmore and her husband David have been involved with the Pettit couple for many years through FCA, and prior to that, from working with him as a coach for a Green Xtreme softball team. In talking with Lori Gilmore, I asked her to share some thoughts. She said, “Bob and Ginny have selflessly provided for young people in our community through the Victory Center, better known as ‘The Vic’. The building in the center of town is home to Three Rivers FCA, Geneseo FCA and the popular Friday morning FCA Huddles. Over the years, a handful of ASA softball teams have used the facility for team development and in the last few years – Inspire Continuing Care (ICC) calls ‘The Vic’ home. Many young lives have been impacted for the good by the Pettit’s generous provision and foresight to repurpose the old library building.”

I am going to add a personal thought….In talking with Pettit through the years and realizing how much he and his wife care about and do for others, a verse from 1Peter 4:10 came to mind – “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in it various forms.”…….Bob Pettit does just that and he and his wife do it without ever wanting to be recognized.