When a baseball team gets in trouble, coaches turn to a reliever. Which is exactly what Steve Burleson did to save the 1988 KCKCC baseball season.
“The day before school started in the fall, our all-conference and all-region shortstop called and said he wasn’t coming back,” Burleson vividly remembers.
Which is when Steve Bushnell came out of the bullpen to save the day.
“I
called Steve in and said, ‘You’re our shortstop,’” Burleson said. “He started all year at shortstop and did a great job. I knew he would do whatever was necessary.”
The move to shortstop brought him under the tutelage of assistant coach Mike Keehn, who later had great success as head coach at North Alabama.
“I was pretty raw and green and struggled early on but with Mike’s help, I got better,” Bushnell said. “I really appreciated his patience with me. The reason for my success is because of Mike Keehn and Coach Burleson. It was because of them I got a chance to play two years at Emporia State.”
His greatest success, however, came as a high school coach at Topeka Seaman where he worked for 33 years - the first 29 as a teacher and coach and the last four as athletic director. He retired earlier this year.
In 20 seasons as head baseball coach, Bushnell’s teams won nine Class A state championships and finished second four times. Equally impressive, he took his team to the state tournament 18 straight seasons.
That success did not go unnoticed. In 2018, he was named National High School Coach of the Year (Division 3). He also holds membership in several hall of fames including the Kansas Association of Baseball Coaches, Ban Johnson League, Emporia State University, Topeka Seaman and as of 2022, the KCKCC Athletic Hall of Fame.
While he had several offers after graduating from Sumner, Bushnell’s No. 1 choice was easy – KCKCC.
“Growing up in Wyandotte County and KCK, I knew what success Coach Burleson had in baseball, and I looked up to the players in his program,” Bushnell said. “Mike Hinkle (2017 KCKCC Hall of Fame) was one of the best. He also played at Sumner, then went on to Kansas State and the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the place I wanted to play.”
It was a decision Bushnell will forever cherish.
“Playing for Coach Burleson, you couldn’t help but be a sponge and soak up so much I needed in baseball,” he said. “But he was more than a coach. He showed me so much more about the game of life and I can’t thank him enough.”
