MASON RAMSAY

BELLAIRE – The Bellaire High School baseball program will have a new skipper when Spring rolls around, but he’s not new to the program.

Mason Ramsay, a 2018 BHS alum, was named to succeed Bailey McGrath during a board of education meeting.

“There’s no better feeling. You get into coaching and you don’t want to do it anywhere else but your hometown,” Ramsay explained. “It’s a dream come true, and it’s finally here.

“Growing up I had two parents that went to Bellaire. My older brother, Tyler, went here. It’s all I’ve ever known,” he added. “I played three sports here. It’s an exciting time for me.”

Ramsay served as an assistant under McGrath for the last three seasons. He was also a member of the Baldwin-Wallace baseball team in 2019 and 2020.

Although Ramsay has no head coaching at the high school level, he led the St. Clairsville Post 159 Junior American Legion team to the Ohio state tournament in its first year of existence this past summer.

“It was really divine timing. It was an opportunity to help out Coach (Mike) Muklewciz, the Senior team’s manager, and it gave me a lot of coaching experience, in-game managing and some knowledge of what to expect as a head coach on a day-to-day basis.

“I also had good players that made my job pretty easy over the summer.”

Bellaire struggled last season and finished the campaign with just 10 players on the roster, with half of those being now-graduated seniors.

“We’re only bringing back 4-5 guys, but I had 14 sign up the other day when I met with the team,” he noted. “I’m confident that we will get more than that.”

His goals?

“No. 1, we want to get back to fundamental baseball,” he stressed. “Bellaire kind of prides itself on toughness and we’ve kind of built a tradition on that. We want to be tough outs and we want to play fundamental baseball.”

Ramsay was a four-year letterman for the Big Reds and a multi-year letterwinner in football and basketball.

“Baseball is the sport I love coaching the most. Like I said before, there is no place better to coach than your alma mater, and there’s no time better to start than now when we have a lot of new players and different things going on. It’s a good time to build a foundation for the future.”

Ramsay was also a two-time Ohio Valley Baseball League champion as a member of the Maynard Indians. He is listed as a Multi-Categorical Teacher at Bellaire Middle School.

When asked who he would like to thank for being where he is, he replied, “my parents, Bryan and Renee Ramsay, who built me and made me who I am. All the coaches that I’ve had in the past, including Coach (John) Patrone who was, and still is, a role model to me. I teach at the same school as him, so I’m always in his room bugging him with questions and bouncing stuff off of him. Mike Dunfee, another Bellaire graduate who is the head baseball coach at Gordon Lee High School in Georgia, is a really good resource for me, as well.

“I think I am set up for success.”