Van Sickle resigns as Mikes’ coach
Carmichaels baseball coach Scott Van Sickle will be going back where he started his collegiate playing career, as he has resigned from the head coaching position with the Mikes to take an assistant job at Waynesburg University.
The Albert Gallatin High School graduate played his freshmen year with the Yellow Jackets before transferring to California University of Pennsylvania. Waynesburg won the Presidents’ Athletic Conference title during Van Sickle’s freshmen year.
After his playing days were over with the Vulcans at the second base and shortstop positions, Van Sickle served as an assistant at Carmichaels under Dave Bates for four seasons.
In those seasons, the Mikes made the playoffs every year and won the WPIAL Class A titles in the 2005 and 2008 campaigns.
Van Sickle took over the head coaching duties four years ago and has qualified for the postseason in every one of those seasons. He collected 49 wins in the Carmichaels’ dugout, and the Mikes lost to rival California last season in the WPIAL Class A championship game.
Last year, the Mikes were 15-4 overall and the only WPIAL team to make it to the quarterfinal round of the PIAA playoffs.
Van Sickle will join Mike Humiston’s staff at Waynesburg as an infield and hitting coach.
He will also be active in recruiting for the Yellow Jackets as well.
Humiston was actually on the coaching staff as an assistant coach at Waynesburg when Van Sickle was a freshman in 1997.
Last spring, the Yellow Jackets went 18-25 overall and 13-11 in the PAC in Humiston’s eighth year with the ballclub.
At last Thursday’s school board meeting at Carmichaels, Van Sickle officially submitted his resignation as baseball coach for the Mikes.
Van Sickle, who is battling an injury after tearing the labrum in his shoulder while playing in the Fayette County Baseball League this summer, still remains at the high school as a math teacher.