Day in the life: Joe Anson

Every year, Joe Anson handmakes trophies for the young men on each of the teams he coaches.

Anson, owner of Steel Curtain Construction and Design, takes great pride in his efforts as a residential contractor and advocate of Creston’s youth sports programs alike.

If he’s not engrossed in one of his custom-designed construction projects, Anson can most likely be found working to strengthen the skills and attitudes of young Creston athletes.

“It’s just something I love to do,” Anson said. “I love to see one of my boys doing something they haven’t done before. I don’t care about winning and losing at this level.”

Anson admits with four children of his own and his contributions to youth activities, he’s not left with an excess of free time.

“As soon as baseball is done, it’s off to summer camp with the scouts,” he said.

Anson plays an instrumental role in the community as a second-year scoutmaster for the local Boy Scouts of America troop, co-founder of the Little Pitbulls Wrestling Club and coach and board of directors member for Creston Youth Baseball.

“We do the Little Pitbull Wrestling Club out of Henry’s Martial Arts Studio,” Anson said. “We started out with just a couple boys, my son and another one, and it just blew up into a club. They get a lot of one-on-one coaching there. We feel if we can give the kids more personal coaching, it will make for a better program all around.”

Anson’s passion for wrestling occupies a large amount of his fall and winter months. During the spring and early summer, however, youth baseball dominates his attention.

No matter which activity his focus is locked onto, Anson’s goal is always growth and improvement within the kids he coaches and mentors.

“When a kid gets that first hit of his career or the first hit of the year, to see that smile is what it’s all about to me,” Anson said.

Anson helps not only by coaching a team in the second and third-grade (rookie) league as well as the fourth and fifth-grade (minor) league, but also with league administration and facilities maintenance and improvement. Up to this point, he has seen VFW Memorial Field on West Taylor Street as his home field because that is where he has coached the most games.

“We’re in the process of working on a new wooden fence at VFW,” Anson said. “We painted it this year. I was told it’s been there a long time and they wanted to keep the wood fence for nostalgia, keep it the way everyone remembers it. I believe we’re going to try to do it this year so we have it for next season.”

With the help of fellow volunteers and parents, some improvements have already been made and spirits for the future of Creston’s youth baseball revitalized.

“We’ve just got a great group of coaches,” Anson said. “Our board (of directors), they’re behind us. We just got a new pitching mound at the VFW field. Some of us parents came up with half the money, and I went to the board and they supplied the other half. It’s just going to make our ball players better.”

Anson’s goal as a coach, parent and board member can really be summed up as making better ball players for the sake of the sport’s success in Creston as a whole.

“He lets all the players play and is a fair coach,” said Jayson Shimer, one of Anson’s minor league players.

“We want to give the high school program something to look forward to,” Anson said. “We want to overflow them with good ball players. And if we can get them starting down in the rookie and minor leagues to play sound, good-quality ball then we’re going to have one heck of a baseball team when we get up into high school.”

Anson is no stranger to the mechanics of the game, having been called back for a second round of tryouts with the Seattle Mariners organization in his younger years. Though he was proud of such an accomplishment, Anson was committed to the Navy at the time and had to let the experience of one major league audition suffice.

As for the kids he coaches, Anson recognizes the importance of the sense of achievement they gain through their participation in youth sports.

“I broke my hand one year and he let me help coach the team,” said Shimer.

“I make a trophy every year for my teams,” Joe Anson said. “I like doing woodwork, and to me, they (trophies) are appreciation awards for the kids giving me their effort.”

Anson recently presented each of the players on one of his teams a plaque which reads,”It’s not the number on my back. It’s not the color on my jersey. It’s the drive in my will, and it’s my love for the game.”

“I read that to my players on a Friday night and, by the time we got to the game Saturday morning, a lot of those boys had it memorized,” Anson said. “Right there made me realize they appreciated it.”

“We’ve learned a lot from him and he’s learned a lot from us,” Shimer said.