Longtime Anoka-Ramsey Community College Baseball Coach Tom Yelle will retire from coaching the Golden Rams at the conclusion of the 2016 season.
Coach Yelle is in his 29th season as head coach of the Anoka-Ramsey program and 43rd year overall of coaching high school teams or above. Yelle is only the third baseball coach in Anoka-Ramsey's history following Dan Drexler and Paul Twenge and has long been the Dean of head coaches in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference (MCAC).
During his extended tenure with the Anoka-Ramsey program, Yelle's teams have challenged for numerous division and conference titles and have made it to the Region XIII tournament countless times.
Because of lost files — both paper and electronic — over the years, an accurate won-and-lost record cannot be ascertained. Over the near three-decade period he has coached, however, it is estimated Yelle's Anoka-Ramsey teams have collected in excess of 400 wins. Furthermore, and most important of all, the program consistently moves on nearly 70 percent of its baseball student-athletes to higher levels of college play, including six who went on to play at NCAA Division I programs.
The longtime and highly successful head coach of the Coon Rapids-based Post 334 American Legion baseball team, and a former baseball hitting instructor, Yelle also has a long history with the sport of hockey as a player, coach and skating instructor.
In addition to his on-the-field or on-the-ice endeavors, the University of Minnesota Journalism graduate spent nearly 40 years in the newspaper business as a writer and editor.
An avid waterfowl hunter during the fall and one who fishes between baseball games during the spring and summer, Yelle is married to former sports photographer and now small-business owner Roxanne Yelle and has two married children.
The Golden Rams will play their final home games of the 2016 season on Sunday, May 1 at Wintercrest Field. The first game begins at 1:00pm. Come celebrate Coach Yelle's career with us.
A search for the next Golden Ram baseball coach is currently underway.
