Year Inducted – 2023

Keith Waesch has been a part of youth and high school baseball in southern Portage County since the 1980s. Following his youth playing days, Keith began umpiring in the late 1980s and was the Portage South Hot Stove Baseball umpire-in-chief/assignor for 10 years. He began coaching high school baseball at Waterloo High School and was part of the Vikings’ first baseball league title in 28 years in 1998. Keith was hired as the Rootstown Local School District athletic director in 2001 and has coached varsity baseball at Rootstown for 15 years, including 11 seasons as head coach.

His career high school coaching record is 175-85 with four Portage Trail Conference titles, two P.T.C. runner-up finishes, one district title and two district runner-up showings. He has earned P.T.C. coach of the year four times. Keith has been a member of the Northeast Ohio Baseball Coaches Association for nearly 20 years and has been selected twice (2005 & 2019) to coach in the All-Ohio Series at Ohio State. Besides his duties as A.D., he has served as the P.T.C. commissioner since 2010 and Rootstown’s head golf coach for 26 years. In 2017, he returned to coaching at the youth baseball level and has continued in that capacity. Keith and his wife Amanda have three children – Nathan, Ryan Lynn and Gerren.