March 8, 2010

Marrow enjoys Rio homecoming

Rio Grande --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm baseball team hosted Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH on Saturday in a doubleheader. The day marked a homecoming for Franciscan head baseball coach Dr. Robert Marrow. 

Marrow, a 1976 graduate of Rio Grande College, is a nationally recognized chiropractor who specializes in Sports Medicine and is a former member of the Rio Grande baseball program.

Rio Grande head coach Brad Warnimont recognized Dr. Marrow before the game and presented him with an old Redmen jersey. "It's a great honor, Brad's a great guy," Morrow said. "He's always, since we first met three years ago, been a gentleman."

Warnimont came up with the idea of presenting the jersey earlier in the day and thought it would be a nice gesture. "Giving back to the people who have been here, I think history is important and bringing guys back like Bob, and he is a class act and runs a class program and we're appreciative of the people who were here before us," Warnimont said. "I think you need to look back to be able to look forward and this sort of brainstormed on me this morning and we've got those jerseys that we're trying to sell and we wanted to make Bob happy and feel comfortable that he's back on our campus and we're happy to have him." 

Marrow follows the progress of the RedStorm team and complimented Warnimont on the way he directs the program. "He does a great job with this program," Marrow said. "He always has his guys prepared to play, has a great attitude. His players obviously love to play the game and play for him."

Warnimont said that he appreciates the way Marrow handles his program as well. "Dr. Bob does a great job with Franciscan," Warnimont said. "He's an alum and he is just a class guy. It's good to bring back some alums to the program and he appreciates the things we're doing here as well." 

Warnimont also reported that his players commented to him about the way the Franciscan team played the game and the way they handled themselves on the field and how much they enjoyed playing against Dr. Marrow and his team. 

Franciscan played a four-game set with Rio Grande last season and that brought back plenty of memories for Marrow and he welcomed the chance to return this season. "It's beautiful here. I came here originally from New Jersey and came out here with five of my classmates from high school," he said. "It's always great to come back to southern Ohio. I have the opportunity to coach about four hours to the north, I saw that we had that chance (to play one another) three years ago, so Brad and I arranged this."

"It's a great way to begin our season, it gives Rio a chance to see somebody up north, since their whole conference now is going to be down south (referring to the Mid-South Conference)," Marrow added. "It's just nice to be here, things change down here, but a lot of things stay the same. That's what's nice, the people down here are great and every time we come down to visit, the school is great, the local community is great."

Marrow also stated that he was a member of the Archon Fraternity while at Rio Grande. "One of the guys on the (Rio) coaching staff is an Archon (John Combs). Some of the guys come over and say hi to me all the time, so, it's just nice to be back here every year." 

After the game, Dr. Marrow addressed both teams and led them in prayer. He also ushered his team around the Rio campus, showing them the old and the new and reminiscing of his time at Rio Grande. 

He would have liked to have had better results as Rio Grande handed his team a pair of losses (17-1 and 15-1) to open the season. "You could see, we were ahead of them, they hadn't been outside yet and we had nine games under our belt so that made a big difference," Warnimont said.

Franciscan University is an NCAA Division III institution located in Steubenville, OH. The Barons compete in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC).