{"id":1041,"date":"2018-12-07T19:06:40","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T19:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vpms1.humber.smartmanagedservers.com\/sweatmag\/?p=1041"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:30:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:30:16","slug":"jim-nemish-living-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/jim-nemish-living-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Nemish: Living Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Rick Woodward<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Back in September, Durham College women\u2019s softball coach Jim Nemish won his 500th<\/sup> career game. Such a number sounds prolific, as it should, but even more impressive is the number of games he\u2019s lost. Nemish\u2019s career winning percentage of .753 is one of the highest in Canadian collegiate softball history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Durham College women\u2019s softball coach Jim Nemish won his 500th career game in September 2018. (OCAA)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To say Nemish has achieved legendary status in the OCAA\u2019s coaching ranks would be an understatement. Running the team since the late \u201880s, Nemish has led his team to a medal finish at provincials in 27 of his 30 seasons, including 17 golds. That kind of continued success is almost unheard of in most sports, but the coach chalks it up to solid recruitment and philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been fortunate enough to be able to get quality players here and they\u2019ve bought into the program,\u201d Nemish says. \u201cWhen you succeed and win, and have a winning program, then it attracts good players because everybody wants to play on a successful program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ken Babcock, Director of Athletics & Recreation for Durham College, has known Nemish for most of his tenure with the program says the coach expects a lot out of his players, but he expects a lot out of himself as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJim knows how to build and run a collegiate women\u2019s softball program that mirrors any top NCAA WSB program in the USA. And his ability to recruit top student-athletes who are strong players and excellent students has been the recipe for success,\u201d Babcock says via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former player Allison Giroux, a member of the team that went undefeated over a 56-game stretch in the early 2000s, was one of many athletes drawn to Durham based on its track record. She isn\u2019t the only one who felt that way, as countless others have gone out of their way to be part of Nemish\u2019s legendary program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople look at that program and say \u2018you know what, you\u2019re a fastball player, you need to go to Durham\u2019. It\u2019s an amazing program and it\u2019s highly recommended,\u201d Giroux says. \u201cJim also does an amazing job throughout the offseason recruiting. He takes such great pride in finding his talent. He\u2019s finding these gems and puts together, clearly, year after year, an amazing program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being around for as long as he has, Nemish has seen the league expand in terms of the number of games played, along with several other changes, including the evolution of the athletes themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of girls that used to go to the States are staying in Canada now because their season\u2019s longer, there\u2019s more games,\u201d he says, citing more double-headers in the last five years. \u201cBetter quality players because over the years, things have changed, kids are training harder, they\u2019re keeping in better shape, so they\u2019re becoming better athletes,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The athletes aren\u2019t the only ones who have changed, however. When you\u2019ve had as much success as the Durham Lords have had over the last three decades, other teams begin to take notice, formulating specific game plans to take down the mighty Lords. As such, coach Nemish has had to adapt to the ever-evolving game of softball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assistant coach Rosie Theriault says, \u201cHe\u2019s grown with the game \u2026 he has a vision of what he wants to be and he just goes and gets it done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nemish has become synonymous with Durham softball and it\u2019s a relationship he wouldn\u2019t change a thing about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like it here, I\u2019m treated very well. It\u2019s a great staff to work with, the athletic department looks after us very well,\u201d Nemish says.  \u201cAnd it\u2019s fun\u2026 I enjoy every year meeting new players, returning players coming back, so it\u2019s been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 30 with the college, Nemish has accumulated a few favourite memories during his time as a coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of memorable moments, I think our first medal at nationals in 2010, we won a silver medal out there,\u201d Nemish says. \u201cI think the biggest thing was over a four-year period where we went undefeated for 56 games, and I think that was a huge accomplishment and that was pretty memorable, being able to do that over four years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One would think that Nemish has accomplished all that can possibly be accomplished in the OCAA, but he says he has no concrete plans to walk away just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a year by year thing and as long as it continues to be fun, and as long as they want me, I\u2019ll keep coming back,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nemish\u2019s career winning percentage of .753 is one of the highest in Canadian collegiate softball history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1.jpg",744,853,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"medium":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1-640x734.jpg",640,734,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1.jpg",696,798,false],"large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1.jpg",696,798,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1.jpg",744,853,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1.jpg",744,853,false],"td_150x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1-150x172.jpg",150,172,true],"td_218x150":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1-218x150.jpg",218,150,true],"td_300x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1-300x344.jpg",300,344,true],"td_324x400":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1-324x400.jpg",324,400,true],"td_485x360":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1-485x360.jpg",485,360,true],"td_696x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1-696x798.jpg",696,798,true],"td_1068x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1.jpg",744,853,false],"td_1920x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/Nemish-1.jpg",744,853,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"chelseaalphonso","author_link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/author\/chelseaalphonso\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Nemish\u2019s career winning percentage of .753 is one of the highest in Canadian collegiate softball history.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1153,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions\/1153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}