HAMILTON — Tim Nichting has spent more than four decades helping children chase baseball dreams at West Side Little League.
Now, the longtime Hamilton manager is receiving a statewide honor of his own.
Nichting has been selected for induction into the Ohio Sports Hall of Fame as part of its Class of 2026, adding another chapter to a remarkable year in which he helped guide West Side to its sixth Little League World Series appearance.
Nichting is among several inductees with Butler and Warren County connections. Hamilton High baseball standout Mark Lewis also is included in the baseball category, while former professional football players Frank Clair of Hamilton, Ferris Beekley of West Chester and George Munns of Oxford are listed among the hall’s posthumous selections. Algy Clark of Franklin represents Warren County among the posthumous honorees.
The induction ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Dayton Convention Center.
Nichting’s selection comes after another memorable summer for one of the nation’s most successful Little League programs.
West Side reached Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for a sixth time in August, setting a record for appearances by a United States Little League program. Nichting made his fifth trip to the Little League World Series, the most by a U.S. coach.
“It’s crazy that this will be my fifth time going there, going all the way back to 1991 with my dad Ray,” Nichting said after West Side qualified for this year’s World Series. “But wow, it’s just a great feeling to make 12-year-old kids, I think, live part of their dream.”
Baseball — and West Side — has been a Nichting family tradition.
Ray Nichting coached West Side from 1968 through 1999 and took Hamilton to Williamsport in 1991 and 1993. Tim began coaching alongside his father in 1983 after his own playing career, which included time in the Montreal Expos’ minor league system.
Tim Nichting later managed West Side’s 2007 World Series team and has formed a longtime partnership with Ken Coomer. The two began coaching together in 2006 and have been central figures during an era in which West Side developed into a national Little League power.
“We learned well from my dad, and we’re carrying it forward,” Nichting said of the partnership.
That impact has extended well beyond victories and championships.
During West Side’s run to Williamsport this summer, Nichting’s son, Tony, described what has kept his father at the ballpark for 43 years.
“He pours his heart and soul into it for the kids,” Tony Nichting said during an ESPN interview. “And his main goal is to get every kid as good as they can be.”
West Side’s history now includes 23 Ohio championships and six trips to the Little League World Series — 1991, 1993, 2007, 2010, 2021 and 2026. Nichting and Coomer have been involved in nearly all of the program’s state championships during their lengthy tenures.
West Side president Josh Davidson said their ability to prepare young players for baseball’s biggest Little League stage has become part of the program’s identity.
“They have set that tradition and that expectation and know the recipe for success,” Davidson said. “Those guys being there so many times, they know how to manage a team on and off the field and not let the moment get too big for the kids.”
Nichting’s induction also places him alongside another prominent name from Hamilton’s baseball history.
Lewis starred at Hamilton High from 1985-88 and remains prominently featured in the Ohio High School Athletic Association record book. His 222 career hits and 212 RBIs are listed as state records, while his 42 career home runs rank among Ohio’s all-time leaders.
Lewis was selected by the Cleveland Indians with the second overall pick in the 1988 Major League Baseball draft and went on to play 11 seasons in the majors from 1991-2001. The infielder played 902 games with Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Baltimore, finishing with a .263 career average, 736 hits, 48 home runs and 306 RBIs. One of his signature moments came with the Reds in 1995, when he hit the first pinch-hit grand slam in major league postseason history.
Lewis was among the standout players coached by legendary Hamilton coach Dan Bowling and went on to play professionally. The Ohio Sports Hall of Fame lists Lewis as a 2026 inductee in baseball.
The hall’s legacy class provides additional local connections.
Clair, a Hamilton native, is among the posthumous football selections, as are Beekley of West Chester, Munns of Oxford and Clark of Franklin. The hall says Ohio-born athletes who played in the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA or NHL are automatic selections for its legacy posthumous class.
For Nichting, however, the honor arrives almost immediately after a summer that reinforced why he has remained involved with West Side for so long.
After more than four decades of coaching, five trips to Williamsport and generations of Hamilton players coming through the program, Nichting reflected during this year’s World Series on what the experience had come to mean.
“I’ve hit the peak, right?” Nichting said. “This is crazy for me. I think it’s crazy for my kids. I think it’s crazy for Hamilton.”
