PAWNEE — Sitting in his office, which has “Principal” on the door, Chris Hennemann handed a visitor a flyer from his desk describing a day — May 23, to be exact — when the local baseball field will be named in his honor. You might wonder if such a man, in such a small town as Pawnee, might have a pretty good-sized ego?
That’s hardly the case with the 57-year-old Minnesota native who grew up in River Falls, Wisconsin. For one thing, it was tough to feel too high and mighty growing up with nine other brothers and two sisters, with only so much attention to go around from his parents.
“That’ll keep you humble,” Hennemann says with a chuckle.
But the truth is, Hennemann is worthy of having a fuss made about him in this town of about 2,200. For nearly three decades, he’s been a teacher in the local schools and the high school team’s baseball head coach. He was inducted into the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame last year, and before Pawnee hosts Alton Marquette on the 23rd, “Hennemann Field” will be the new moniker when Pawnee steps onto the diamond.
“It’s kind of weird, just thinking about it,” Hennemann said. “I mean, I’m still coaching. But if they’re going to do it, I’d rather it happen while I’m still around. But it’s quite an honor. I’m very humbled by it. I just think about all the kids that have gone through here, all the players I’ve coached, all the assistant coaches … it’s being named after me, but I certainly didn’t do this alone.”
Pawnee rising
Hennemann has had some very good teams coaching the red and blue since the start of the 1999 season. The 2012 team went 31-7. From 2006-12, in fact, no Pawnee team won fewer than 23 games.
Hard times befell Pawnee, however, starting in 2016. The team went a combined 35-49 the following four seasons, but things started to turn around again in 2022, and in 2025, Pawnee accomplished something it had never done before: they made the Class 1A state tournament.
They made the state semifinals, in fact, before losing to Glen Carbon Father McGivney. This year, despite losing five seniors to graduation, Pawnee is again a winning team, currently at 13-7 overall (through May 6). Pawnee lost 11-1 in a mercy-rule-shortened game Saturday at Class 3A Chatham Glenwood, but Hennemann is hoping the experience of playing a bigger-school opponent will pay off when regional playoffs start later this month.
“We’ve got some real good players right now, and our goal is to get everything together and go on another run,” said Hennemann, whose late father worked for the old Northwest Airlines, and his mother is a retired nurse. “We lost some really good players, too, especially Carson Wort. But each year, it seems we’ve had some young kids step in and play well at the varsity level.”
Sophomore shortstop and pitcher Gavin Greer is one such player. He entered Saturday’s game hitting .400 and 3-1 on the mound. Junior Hudson Wort was hitting .407 with 28 RBIs, and seniors Carter Morell and Carson Contreras were each hitting .333.
No plans to stop
Hennemann, whose wife also works in the Pawnee school district, is eligible to retire in three years. While he indicated he plans to do just that, he doesn’t want to stop coaching Pawnee baseball when his true working days are done.
He remains fascinated by the “little things” baseball can teach, on and off the field. Not a ranter and raver as a coach, Hennemann tries to calmly and patiently instill a set of core values in his players.
“I told the kids one day, ‘Coaches are supposed to say they don’t have favorites, but I do have favorites and here are my favorites: the players that have the best attitudes and work the hardest — those are my favorite players,’” Hennemann said. “That doesn’t mean you’re the best player. But those are my favorite players because I don’t have to worry about your attitude, and you work your butt off every day.”
With such a long and successful coaching tenure, not to mention the field to be named after him, it’s safe to say Hennemann will coach as long as he wants at Pawnee.
“We have a good community here. Pawnee has a real family atmosphere, and there’s a reason I’ve been here so long,” he said.
Coaching baseball at Pawnee has been a family affair for the Hennemanns. Raph Hennemann, Chris’s younger brother, was an assistant for years. Hennemann has also been surrounded in the dugout by his three sons — Cale, Cade, and Connor — who have returned at various points to help their dad as assistants.
Cale is currently a paid assistant coach, while Connor is a volunteer coach. Dade is an assistant at a high school in Indiana. His wife, Sarah Hennemann, was a two-sport athlete in college and, Hennemann said, “has been very supportive of my coaching and the long hours at the field.
“I feel very blessed to have landed at Pawnee after student teaching there in 1996.”
Adrian Dater is a freelance writer for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached through the sports department at sports@sj-r.com.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Hennemann remains humble, despite leaving lasting legacy in Pawnee
Reporting by Adrian Dater, Special to the State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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