Sports : Keats to Succeed Keep as Baseball Coach at Crossroads High

Bob Keats, who has coached youth baseball for five years at Palisades Park, has been named Crossroads High baseball coach, succeeding Bill Keep.

Keep, 27, resigned in June after leading the Roadrunners to two consecutive Delphic League co-championships in his two seasons. Keats, 41, is a free-lance television and film writer. He played high school baseball in Chicago.

“I think it is the greatest opportunity in the world,” Keats said. “It’s great to be working in such a progressive educational environment. I have a great love for the game, and the bottom line is that I want the guys to have fun. Winning doesn’t have to come at the expense of having fun.”

Keats has hired girls’ basketball coach Larry Wiener as an associate head baseball coach.

Wiener, 39, was an assistant baseball coach from 1982 to 1993 under athletic director and former baseball coach Chuck Ice. Wiener has coached the girls’ basketball team for 13 seasons and was named The Times’ Westside Girls’ Coach of the Year for the third time last season.

“I’ve been out of baseball for one season, and it was a lonely, miserable experience,” said Wiener, who played high school baseball at Marshall. “I’ve known these kids since eighth grade, and I’m excited to be working with them.”