2012 Manager: Tom Starck

Tom Starck

When building a team, a good manager always does his best in bringing his team close together through good on and off field comradeship.  During a period of 26 years of managing, Tom Starck has accomplished this feat with outstanding teams, such as The Jokers (1975-85), Joe Blacks Softball Club (1988-2000), and The Florida Heat/Nave Plumbing/Joe Blacks/Worth (2000-2002).

Tom’s managerial abilities have resulted in over 1500 victories at the highest levels of softball competition. His teams have won state championships in Florida, Wisconsin, including the 1993 Class A title in Illinois. In 1989 at Milwaukee and in 1997 at Sterling Heights, MI the Joe Black teams finished 3rd in the Men’s Major NITs, before capturing the Cincinnati Major NIT in 2002.

In 2002, Tom co-managed his team to the USSSA Men’s Major World Series at Orlando, Florida.

With all of this success, perhaps his most outstanding accomplishment is that his teams each year from 1976 thru 2002 participated in the USSSA Divisional and/or World Tournaments.
During a span of 15 seasons, Joe Blacks Softball Club became a national program that was known as the best team in Illinois during that period, with no less than 26 former players in state Hall of Fames from the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida.
Tom says his biggest softball win was winning the USSSA World Series at Kansas City in 2002.

It is likely, his biggest softball moment is being inducted into the USSSA Illinois Hall of Fame.