Travel anxiety grounds Indiana Tech coach

Anxiety about traveling kept Indiana State coach Lance Hershberger from accompanying his team to the NAIA World Series in Lewiston.

And now it's officially grounded his coaching career.

Hershberger ended 12 years at the Fort Wayne school by resigning this week, according to the school's president.

"It's the most unique situation that I've run into in my 42 years in higher education," Donald Andorfer said Friday. He described Hershberger as having a "tremendous phobia against travel," and said school officials went out of their way to try to accommodate their coach.

"... It's hard for the players to understand, and it's difficult for me to understand," Andorfer said. "Last year, he wanted to leave the program because of it, but we talked him into staying with it and that we'd get him some help to overcome it."

Help did come, but it wasn't enough, and Hersberger was a last-minute travel scratch earlier this week as the team flew from Chicago to Spokane with assistant coaches Matt Brumbaugh and Steve Devine in charge.

This is the fifth consecutive year the Warriors have earned a trip to the Series. But Hershberger made it to nationals in just one of those years, when he flew with his team to the tournament in West Palm Beach, Fla.

"But he went through a lot more anxiety than we had ever imagined."

Andorfer said it isn't just flying that brings Hershberger anxiety. Ground travel can also be troubling. In short, any travel. "He just can't overcome it. It's pure and simple as that," Andorfer said. "He's going through a tough part of his life, and we want to do all we can for him."

Hershberger took his team on short spring trips to Kentucky and Tennessee this season, and while the weather was lousy, it was the anxiety of travel that left him in a somewhat unstable state.

"Any coach would give anything to be in this spot," said Andorfer, who has served as president for 18 of his 26 years at the school. "So you know it's really unique when a coach gets to this point and then can't follow through."

In fact, it was Hershberger who started the baseball program a dozen years ago, having to battle through an 0-23 inaugural season.

"A number of years ago, a group of students brought us a petition to start baseball at our school," Andorfer said. "When they brought it in, it kind of touched my heart because I love baseball. So we decided to do it. Of the kids who brought the petition in, only two or three made the team."

After a few bumpy years, the Warriors finished above the .500 mark, and they've been a successful program ever since. Andorfer says much of the team's success is due to Hershberger, who preached a brand of hard-nosed old-fashioned baseball.

"It (the anxiety problem) is something he has to deal with," Brumbaugh said. "It's a shame because he's built this program from the ground up and he never gets to reap the benefits."

Indiana Tech's classroom emphasis is on engineering and computer science. The enrollment is 2,800 students.

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Barrows may be contacted at bbarrows@lmtribune.com