Baseball is in the DNA of Brock Buckingham.
An all-state player when he graduated from McDonald County High School in 1998, Buckingham played two years of junior college baseball at Cowley College in Arkansas City, Kan.
After graduating from Cowley, Buckingham transferred to Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, where he joined former high school teammate Nick Martin.
After playing a year for the Winnipeg Gold Eyes, Buckingham returned to Cowley as a student assistant coach in 2004. After he became a paid assistant for 2005 and 2006, Buckingham left baseball for the next four years before returning to Cowley as an assistant coach in 2011.
In his eight years at Cowley, Buckingham has helped the Tigers win 340 games, including four Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division championships. The 2016 team reached the Junior College World Series in late May before losing to San Jancito and Yavapai, the two teams that eventually played for the national championship.
"It was a great experience," Buckingham said of the trip to Grand Junction, Colo. "The whole town shuts down for a week. They have something for the team to do all time when we aren't playing. Some group or another takes us to eat. We get treated like big leaguers. Our first game against San Jancito there was 12,000 people in the stands. They have baseball cards made of all the players and the kids were signing autographs all the time."
Buckingham said he began his coaching duties as a base running and defensive coach. He said it has evolved into him being the third base coach and running the offense as well as coaching the defense.
"The last four years, I have gotten to do a lot of coaching," Buckingham said. "I love being around the game and going to a job that I absolutely love."
Off the field, Buckingham is in charge of all the recruiting. He said that with having to replace at least half of the team each year, recruiting is a full-time job at the junior college level.
"I am on the road three to four days a week in the summer," Buckingham said. "This year we are bringing in 24 new players, including transfers from D-1 schools. I am the young guy on staff, so I can relate to the kids better. I take care of all the social media and do all the texting and calling and keep in constant contact with the guys we are recruiting."
Buckingham said it is a good thing his wife, Jessica, is a former athlete and daughter of a coach. Jessica Buckingham was a standout softball player at the University of Nebraska.
The couple have three children, Briggs, 5, Brynn, 3, and Brant, 18 months.
Buckingham said he plans to continue in baseball for the rest of his career.
"I would like to be a head coach at the junior college level or if a D-1 school called I would be intrigued, but I have a good gig here," Buckingham said. "All I do is coach baseball and I am paid well to do it. We have a $4 million indoor hitting facility as part of the best facilities in junior college. In this profession you are always looking to move up, but I am very happy here."
About that DNA, Brock Buckingham was not the first member of the family to participate in a World Series. Brock is the son of Steve and Beth Buckingham of Anderson. As a youngster, Steve played in the 1967 Pony League World Series in Springfield, Ill., before eventually attending Crowder College and the University of Tulsa.
After college, Steve played minor league baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies organization.
Sports on 06/23/2016