But the 30-year-old and his family – wife, Kara (Hartman); son, Jamison, 3; and daughter, Vivienne, 1 -- live in Effingham, so the commute just got a lot shorter.

“I’m really excited about coming back to my hometown,” said McNeely, who will also be a high school physical education and health teacher, plus an assistant coach with the EHS football team.

He will replace Chris Fleener, who guided the Effingham baseball program for 20 years and compiled a 421-219 overall record. After the school year, Fleener resigned and moved to Fairfield, where he will be a teacher and the head baseball coach.

“I know I have big shoes to fill,” McNeely admitted. “I played for Chris for four years when I was in high school. I believe you learn something from every coach you’re around. I really like the way Chris controls the game and how he pushes his kids in practice.”

The son of William and Paula McNeely graduated from EHS in 2008. He played baseball all four years in high school, garnering all-conference honors twice. He also played football four years and was all-conference and all-state his senior year, setting a school record for combined offensive yardage as a quarterback. During that 2007 season, he amassed 2,566 yards that season, passing for 1,437 yards and rushing for 1,129 more.

After graduating from EHS, McNeely played two years at Lake Land College and completed his collegiate career at Murray State University, where he was a pitcher for the Racers.

Baseball was always his favorite sport.

“I was a baseball player since I was four or five years old,” he said. “From Small Fry to Babe Ruth to Legion, I played it all.”

At Marshall, he was a varsity assistant coach for football and baseball. He was also instrumental in helping start a junior high baseball program.

“We were trying to build a program there,” McNeely recalled. “Marshall is definitely a basketball and football town, but we tried to develop more baseball knowledge and interest. Getting the junior high program started was a huge success. It should really help the high school program.”

He will now inherit an Effingham baseball program that is already strong. Over the last three years, the Hearts compiled a 77-22 overall record that included three straight regional championships. This past season, EHS added a sectional title for the first time in 77 years before falling to Waterloo in the super sectional.

“Hopefully, last season’s success is something we can build on,” McNeely said. “For younger kids to be a part of that, to be in the lineup, should make them more confident. It should prove to them they can play with anybody and plant that seed in their mind that’s the level we want to be and can be year after year. Confidence is definitely contagious.”

During the summer, McNeely has coached some of the kids that will return next spring.

“We’ve got a good group of kids coming back,” he noted. “They are a hard-working group that has good knowledge of the game. We can build on that.

“This baseball program has been strong for quite a while,” McNeely added. “It seems like there is a good core of kids that come into the program every year. Part of that is because we’ve also got a strong junior high program. I played for Coach (Rod) Wiethop and I know he does a good job. That junior high program is vital.”

McNeely describes his coaching style as “aggressively smart.”

“I like to push the issue as much as possible, especially early in the game,” he explained. “But you also have to be smart, especially in a tight game. You have to know when to pick the situations to be aggressive.

“I expect the kids to work hard,” McNeely added. “I may introduce some things the kids aren’t used to. I plan to utilize the weight program Coach (Brett) Hefner has put in place. There are things I’d like to do during the summer. I hope to keep baseball in their minds year-round.

“I’d like to see our program get to the point where everybody wants to be like us, but nobody wants to play us. That’s the goal.”