When he first heard the news last October, Chris Wyrick decided to keep it mostly to himself.
"I told my family, but I didn't want to make a big deal out of it," Wyrick said. "I was shocked, to tell you the truth."
But the secret went public in a big way Saturday when Wyrick was inducted into the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.
"You never expect to be inducted into a Hall of Fame," Wyrick, the head coach at Helias, said. "That's not why you coach."
Wyrick is entering his 19th year as head coach at Helias and 20th overall after he started his career at St. Elizabeth. He has a career record of 336-120, winning state titles in 2000 and 2001 at Helias as well as one as an assistant at St. Elizabeth.
"It's a honor to be recognized by your peers, to see that they recognize what you've accomplished over a long period of time," Wyrick said.
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Baseball has always been a big part of Wyrick's life.
"Growing up, all I wanted to do was play baseball," he said. "It's something I've done every summer as a player or a coach for as long as I can remember."
A graduate of Helias, Wyrick was a key player on three state championship teams with the Crusaders. He played at the University of Missouri before playing professionally with the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers organizations before returning to Central Missouri to coach.
Coaching at his alma mater provided some extra pressure in the early years.
"The expectations were very high when I got here, but I was part of the teams that set those expectations," Wyrick said. "We were supposed to win and win every year.
"I think being back at Helias added to the pressure for me, but not everybody gets to do something like this and I think we - myself, the assistant coaches, the players - have made this one of the top 10 programs in the state across the board."
His first game as Helias' head coach is one of his favorite memories. In those days, the Crusaders always opened against the Jefferson City Jays.
"We were down, but we came back to win the game," Wyrick said. "Afterward, I was wondering what I'd gotten into here. That one will always stick with me because that is always such a big rivalry game."
Phil Pitts hit a 3-run home run to help Helias win that game. He later served as an assistant coach under Wyrick with the Crusaders.
"I was lucky enough to not only play for Chris, but work with him," Pitts, now the defensive coordinator for the Lincoln University football program, said. "He taught me so much both on and off the field.
"Chris relates to kids, he understands how to get his point across, how to motivate. The more you can surround kids with people like that, the more successful you are going to be."
The players are the most important to Wyrick.
"As a coach, you hope you have some influence on a player's life to when they hit adversity, they get through it and come out better on the other side," he said.
One thing Wyrick has learned through the years is the need to develop trust from his teams.
"They have to know why you're doing it and you know what you're doing," he said. "They need to know that you care for them.
"You could know everything in the world about whatever sport it is, but if the kids don't know that you care for them and have their best interests at heart, they're going to tune you out."
Wyrick has been more open with his praise of players through the years.
"When I first started, I would do it more one-on-one, I didn't want to do it in front of anybody else," he said. "But now, I can give them a hug and tell them great job."
When a player succeeds after working hard to improve is one of the great thrills for him as a coach.
"When those kids finally get it, finally get to throw a curveball for a strike in a hitter's count or hit a groundball on a hit-and-run, it's special," Wyrick said. "You have to teach kids they are all vital parts of the team because they can do the little things that lead to wins. And when they achieve success, to see the look in their eyes that they accomplished something they worked hard for, that's what coaching is all about."
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Wyrick has a basic philosophy as a coach - keep it simple.
"We don't have a lot of fancy drills, we just try to beat you with the basics," he said. "I believe that's what works."
It's something he took away from his coaches at the collegiate and professional levels.
"They were all organized, they had a plan and kept it simple and straightforward and that's how I try to coach," Wyrick said. "I don't want to cloud the minds of the players with a lot of stuff, just be fundamentally sound."
That has carried over into the other sports he coaches at Helias, where he currently serves as an assistant for the softball and girls basketball teams.
"His knowledge is amazing, he can look at a player or situation and can immediately diagnose what needs to be done," Helias softball coach Dan Campbell said. "His passion and intensity for the game is unmatched.
"No coach will work harder to improve his players or team than Chris. He cares about his players, both on and off the field."
Wyrick admits he dislikes losing more than he likes winning. It's something he uses as motivation.
"It can drive me to stick around and work a little longer, not let things slide in practice," he said. "Get them one more rep, do that drill one more time to try to get it right. I don't like losing, but winning is sure a lot of fun.
"Some people say that's a bad trait to have and at times, it's been a bad trait to have for me. But I think there are times that it has spurred kids on and allowed us to be more successful and achieve things they didn't think were possible.
"I believe the players know I get riled up because I care."
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To be inducted into the Hall of Fame, you must have been head coach for at least 15 seasons. The members of the association then vote for a maximum of three coaches on the ballot.
Word about Wyrick's election first became public in the association's newsletter about a month after he was notified.
"Brian Ash (Jefferson City's head coach) was the first one to call and congratulate me and I heard from Andy Jackson from Kirksville right after that," Wyrick said. "Then I heard from a lot of other guys that we've competed against through the years.
"To me, that is the award. To hear from them, to have those guys that you compete against reach out like that and wish me well. The guys that you battle against for wins, for titles, to hear from them was special."
Wyrick, 46, believes he will continue to coach for several more years.
"To get to 25 years here would be special," he said. "And at that point, I may want to keep going, I don't know. But I know I will always have the desire to help kids improve."
While the Hall of Fame is an individual award, Wyrick credits others for making it happen.
"You are only as good as your assistants and your players," he said. "They are the ones that make the program."