McNutt wants low key farewell tour

It's been the worst kept secret for some time now as Ron McNutt has tried to keep his pending retirement as low key as possible.

But the cat was let out of the bag even more on Thursday when the Reno Gazette Journal reported that McNutt will retire at the end of this, his 29th and last season. While McNutt will not officially announce his retirement until after the season is over, even those around him can't hold back in their plans to honor the longtime Carson High baseball coach.

A weekend of activities will be held on May 29 and 30. On Saturday morning, McNutt's former players from the past 29 years will play an alumni game in which the odd years will face the even years at appropriately, Ron McNutt Field.

Since he'll be retired, McNutt won't have to coach, but will be able to just watch his former players.

Then comes the real fun that night at 7 p.m. at the Carson Nugget when McNutt will be roasted. The master of ceremonies will be Matt Williams, one of McNutt's former players at Carson who went on to a Major League career.

Another one of his former players who went on to the Big Leagues, Charlie Kerfeld, is also scheduled to attend.

On Sunday, a golf tournament will be held at Empire Ranch Golf Course. McNutt said all the proceeds from the weekend will go to scholarships for CHS students.

"When the season's over, we'll have all the rah-rah stuff," McNutt said. "I know Matt Williams will like to get after me. All of this will be fun."

McNutt said he doesn't want his final season to be turned into a "win one for the Gipper" affair.

"Right now I want this to be about the kids, not about my situation," he said. "The kids know how I feel about it.

"I think the kids, they're playing for themselves and they're playing for Carson High. Nothing's going to change. We're going to go about business as usual."

McNutt made the decision that this would be his last year before this school year began. McNutt is also Carson's athletic director and said he would decide if he would continue in that position after the season.

McNutt has won 647 games at Carson after Thursday's victory over North Valleys since taking over the program in 1976 and has led the Senators to two state titles in 1979 and 1992. McNutt also coached the Carson Capitols summer amateur team. With the Capitols and Carson, McNutt has more than 1,800 career wins.

His last year with the Capitols was 2001. There was the speculation that when McNutt gave up the Capitols, he would also step down at Carson.

"We never looked at it that way because we still had a desire to be around the kids," said McNutt about he and his wife, Terri. McNutt always stresses that the Capitols were his and Terri's team when he talks about them.

If anything, McNutt said giving up the Capitols allowed him to hang around longer at Carson.

"I kind of got a little more excited the last two years when baseball rolled around," McNutt said. "I had a little more energy."

But now McNutt said it's time to step down. "It's the right time and with the right team," he said.