Baseball

Justin Fletschock – Bringing A Different Kind Of Heat

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There comes a time in a person’s life where they want more satisfaction. A little more pull and responsibility. A little more new and a little less old.

That’s what former NDSU baseball pitching standout Justin Fletschock went through. 

 

He was the athletic director and a teacher at Central Cass High School for 13 years. He even started the baseball program at the high school.

However, he wanted to scale the ladder of success.

He received his master’s degree from his alma mater about nine years ago and wanted to pursue some sort of administrative work.

His wife Jamie (a former NDSU volleyball player) and two kids Grace and Sam, both under the age of 10, sends Fletschock off to Valley City, N.D., most mornings where his office is located.

For the last three years, Fletschock has worked as the Assistant to Executive Secretary for the North Dakota High School Activities Association (NDHSAA).

“I wanted to do some kind of administrative work, but this was kind of a step further in that,” the Bison record holder for most wins in a season said. “Being able to administrate the sports that I’ve played and that I’m interested in at the state level was very interesting to me.”

His main duties vary, but he is in charge of half the sports in the state of North Dakota, which are football, basketball, baseball, softball and golf.

He has the pleasure of working with the regulations and rules for those sports as well as hiring officials.

Being a former pitcher for the Bison and for two minor league teams, Fletschock was on the opposite side of umpires; now he is alongside them.

Fletschock said he never had any bad encounters with the umpires during his playing career, but definitely can see both sides of the player-umpire fiasco. 

“I kind of understood where they (umpires or referees) were coming from,” the 40-year-old said. “Being an athlete you just see (that) perspective of it but what goes into (a) call they make or how much they work to get in the right position to make calls; it’s really interesting to see how much work goes into that.” [/text_output]

[image type=”none” float=”none” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” src=”3646″ alt=”Justin Fletschock ndsu bison baseball to assistant to secretary north dakota high school activities association”]

[text_output]And being a former student-athlete has helped Fletschock mold into this NDHSAA position.

Baseball gets flack for being too long of a sport, but a few pitches or a few innings later it gets exciting for the fans and Fletschock said there are times when his current job is both dry and upbeat.

Fletschock is in his office about 60 percent of the time and the other 40 percent he is in meetings around the state or at state tournaments.

“I’m in the office, (sometimes) answering calls, but there’s also times where I’m on the court at the state basketball tournament,” Fletschock said, or even at state golf in Fargo or state softball in Dickinson, N.D.

The transition from college to the minors was similar to going from athletic director and coach to his current job.

In college, Fletschock was tossing baseballs across home plate in front of maybe 500 fans and in the minors the fan base was much stronger.

For example, Fletschock said when he played in Saint Paul during his minor league stint, the stadium would be sold out every night and about 7,000 fans would be watching the game.

And when he was an athletic director, he just had to worry about one high school’s sports, now working for the NDHSAA he is in charge of fewer sports but a larger amount of high schools.

That’s why he has to continue to learn every day and said he has to keep his eyes and ears open toward professional sports, because when a rule or regulation changes at the top it’ll fall down the ladder all the way to high school sports.

“We can always learn something about what is going on, even up to the NFL and MLB because eventually things that happen at those levels trickle down to us,” Fletschock said. “If you would’ve told me five years ago that we (North Dakota) would have a shot clock or a restricted area arc in basketball, things that all started at the NBA and it worked its way down to high school.”

Fletschock and others would’ve called you crazy. But now it’s reality.

All the sports start at home plate for Fletschock and he tries to improve them until they reach all the way around the baseball diamond.

When he heads home to Casselton from Valley City and drives down I-94, he knows that he has a little less old and a lot more new, but he enjoys the new challenge.[/text_output]

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[image type=”none” float=”none” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” src=”3646″ alt=”Justin Fletschock ndsu bison baseball to assistant to secretary north dakota high school activities association”]

[text_output]And being a former student-athlete has helped Fletschock mold into this NDHSAA position.

Baseball gets flack for being too long of a sport, but a few pitches or a few innings later it gets exciting for the fans and Fletschock said there are times when his current job is both dry and upbeat.

Fletschock is in his office about 60 percent of the time and the other 40 percent he is in meetings around the state or at state tournaments.

“I’m in the office, (sometimes) answering calls, but there’s also times where I’m on the court at the state basketball tournament,” Fletschock said, or even at state golf in Fargo or state softball in Dickinson, N.D.

The transition from college to the minors was similar to going from athletic director and coach to his current job.

In college, Fletschock was tossing baseballs across home plate in front of maybe 500 fans and in the minors the fan base was much stronger.

For example, Fletschock said when he played in Saint Paul during his minor league stint, the stadium would be sold out every night and about 7,000 fans would be watching the game.

And when he was an athletic director, he just had to worry about one high school’s sports, now working for the NDHSAA he is in charge of fewer sports but a larger amount of high schools.

That’s why he has to continue to learn every day and said he has to keep his eyes and ears open toward professional sports, because when a rule or regulation changes at the top it’ll fall down the ladder all the way to high school sports.

“We can always learn something about what is going on, even up to the NFL and MLB because eventually things that happen at those levels trickle down to us,” Fletschock said. “If you would’ve told me five years ago that we (North Dakota) would have a shot clock or a restricted area arc in basketball, things that all started at the NBA and it worked its way down to high school.”

Fletschock and others would’ve called you crazy. But now it’s reality.

All the sports start at home plate for Fletschock and he tries to improve them until they reach all the way around the baseball diamond.

When he heads home to Casselton from Valley City and drives down I-94, he knows that he has a little less old and a lot more new, but he enjoys the new challenge.[/text_output]

Justin Fletschock – Bringing A Different Kind Of Heat
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