Westminster Baseball Coach Inducted into Missouri Coaches Hall of Fame

Westminster baseball coach Rich Van Gilst has been elected to the Missouri Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. He will be honored during an induction ceremony in Columbia, Missouri, later this month.

 In 1984, Van Gilst moved to St. Louis to teach math at Westminster Christian Academy. At the time, Westminster was a new Class 1 MSHSAA school and needed a baseball coach, so he took the job.  In 28 seasons at Westminster, his teams have compiled a record of 392 – 257 with five conference championships, seven district titles, six quarter final appearances, four final four appearances and two Class 3 State Championships (2011 and 2012). Furthermore, six of his players have been drafted in that time.

 Van Gilst has received the following awards: Calvin College Alumni High School Coaches Hall of Fame Award in 1996, the Greater St. Louis Association of Umpires, “Coach of the Year” award in 2006, the MHSBCA Class 3 “Coach of the Year” award in 2011 and the NHSBCA Region #5 “Coach of the Year” award in 2012.

 Van Gilst’s baseball coaching career began in 1970 when one of his men’s fast pitch softball teammates – a teaching colleague and head baseball coach at Timothy Christian High School in Elmhurst, Illinois – recruited him to be his assistant.

 Five years later, Van Gilst took a teaching position at Ft. Lauderdale Christian School, a small school in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. There he was asked to start a varsity baseball program and took on the challenge.  After seven years there and a Class 1 district championship, he “retired” from high school coaching to help coach his son in youth leagues, but he returned to coaching to coach at Westminster. 

Van Gilst was born and raised in rural Iowa.  Because he worked on his father’s farm every day before and after school, he did not have the opportunity to play baseball in high school.

After graduating from Pella Christian High in 1963, he went to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he majored in Mathematics; Van Gilst then went on to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he earned a M.A. in Mathematics.

Van Gilst has been married to his wife Judy for 44 years.  They have a son and a daughter and seven grandchildren.

Over the years, God has provided Van Gilst with a supportive family, a resourceful administration, and many outstanding parents, coaches, and players.  He feels extremely blessed by the people God has brought into his life and by the opportunities that God has given him.