The 10th Region baseball coaches and media members have selected the Class of 2026 inductees for the 10th Region Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame was established last spring and inducted 10 members into its inaugural class.

These individuals will be recognized at a banquet that will coincide with the 10th Region Baseball All-Star Game tentative set for Tuesday, June 16th, 2026 at George Rogers Clark High School.

While the 10th Region basketball alignment was established in 1932, it wasn’t until the 1986 season that baseball was aligned in the same manner with the same schools.  The Hall of Fame encompasses two eras: one before 1986 and the other from 1986 to the present.  Two were selected from the pre-alignment era and five from the modern era, totaling seven inductees.

The inductees are:

Woodie Crum (Maysville)
Allen Smith (Maysville)

Nelson Faris (Bourbon County)
Ron Herrington (Harrison County)
JB Schmidt (Harrison County)
Chris Snopek (Harrison County)
Noochie Varner (Harrison County)

Biographies are below:

Woodrow “Woodie” Crum was a Kentucky high school coach known for success in both basketball and baseball. Over a 37-year high school coaching career, he recorded 527 basketball wins and 250 baseball wins in 10 years. He coached the 1958 Maysville Bulldogs baseball team to a state championship. Crum was a multi-sport letterman at Jenkins High School and was named an All-State basketball player in 1947. He later attended Union College, where he competed in basketball and track and was elected “Mr. Union” during his senior year. He began his coaching career at Mays Lick. In 1951, Crum moved to Maysville High School as an assistant basketball coach. After the retirement of Earle D. Jones, Crum became head basketball coach where he led the Bulldogs to three Sweet 16 appearances. He also coached baseball at Maysville from 1952 to 1960, leading the program to six district championships (1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, and 1958) along with the 1958 State title. After Maysville, Crum coached basketball at Daviess County High School in Owensboro. In 1962, he was selected to coach the Kentucky All-Stars. He later moved to Indiana and spent six years as head basketball coach at Lawrence Central in Indianapolis, where he made one trip to the Indiana state tournament. Crum returned to Kentucky in 1970 and became head basketball coach at Harrison County. During an eight-year stint there, he won a regional title in 1976. From 1979 to 1983, he served as head basketball coach at Pendleton County. He then returned to Harrison County and coached there until his retirement in 1988. In addition to coaching, Crum served as first vice president and president of the Kentucky High School Coaches Association, and as a director of the National High School Coaches Association. Crum was honored posthumously with induction into the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1995.

Allen “Smitty” Smith was a two-sport athlete at Maysville High School and a member of the Class of 1958. At 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds, He played basketball and baseball during his high school career. At Maysville, Smith scored 1,975 career points in basketball, which ranks No. 2 on the school’s all-time scoring list based on the information provided. In baseball, he was a key part of Maysville’s 1958 state tournament run and pitched every game of the state tournament as the school won its only state baseball championship. The left-hander attended Louisiana State University (LSU) on a baseball scholarship and pitched for the Tigers from 1960 to 1962. Over three seasons, he won 22 games and posted a 22-9 record with a 1.82 ERA in 237 innings pitched. His career totals included 107 hits allowed, 75 runs allowed, 48 earned runs, 73 walks, and 175 strikeouts. He also led his team in innings pitched in each of his three seasons. By year, Smith went 5-5 with a 2.31 ERA in 1960, 10-2 with a 1.34 ERA in 1961, and 7-2 with a 1.93 ERA in 1962. In 1961, he struck out 71 batters in 88 innings, LSU finished 22-5, and the program won the SEC Championship. Smith was named All-SEC in 1961 and 1962, was selected All-SEC Western Division in 1961 and 1962, and became LSU’s first-ever All-American in 1961. He was also LSU’s first pitcher to win 10 games in a single season, doing so in 1961.

Nelson Faris, associated with Bourbon County and Paris, has built a long career in Kentucky baseball as both a player and coach. He was a five-year starter at Paris, where he was part of four district championship teams. During his playing career, he posted a 32-13 pitching record and batted just under .400. Faris later played at the University of Kentucky in 1967. Faris began his coaching career as an assistant at Harrison County for two seasons. He then served as an assistant coach at Bourbon County from 1982 to 2001, a span of 19 seasons, before becoming head coach in 2002. He has remained in that role through the present, totaling 24 seasons as head coach. His head coaching record includes 502 career wins, four district championships, and five regional runner-up finishes. Faris was inducted into the KHSBCA Hall of Fame in 2015 and received the American Baseball Coaches Association Lifetime Member Award in 2023.

Ron Herrington was an assistant coach at Harrison County for 27 seasons. Head coach Mac Whitaker credited Harrison County’s baseball success to the help of his longtime assistant coach. After the Thorobreds won the 2010 State Championship, the Lexington Herald-Leader wrote: It was strange seeing Harrison County win a state title without Ronnie Herrington. He was Mac Whitaker’s right-hand man for 27 years before he died of cancer in the fall of 2006. “He was on my mind a lot last week,” Whitaker said. “There were several times I was thinking, ‘What would Ronnie do in this situation?'” From the Herald Leader after in 2021 after Whitaker became Kentucky’s winningest coach in 2021: Among those who helped Whitaker along the way was his longtime assistant, the late Ronnie Herrington, who died in 2006. “It couldn’t have happened (without Herrington). He helped me for 27 years, and I know he’s up there … I was out there working on the field today, and I looked up and just said, ‘Can you imagine, Ronnie, what we’ve done?’”

J.B. Schmidt of Harrison County was a multi-year high school baseball standout who lettered seven seasons, finished with a .355 career batting average, and was part of Harrison County’s 1997 and 1998 state championship teams. He was also named to the State Semifinals All-Tournament Team in 1996, 1997, and 1998, and at age 15 he played for Team USA in the Pan American Games in Japan. On the KHSAA individual offense records list, Schmidt is listed for the career state records in runs scored (311) and hits (275). He later played college baseball at the University of Kentucky from 2002-2005. In his collegiate career, he batted .271 with 80 hits

Chris Snopek was a key player on Harrison County’s four straight regional championship teams from 1986-1989. Harrison County finished 30-6 in 1989 and was the state runner-up. In his high school career, Snopek hit .458 with 223 hits, 36 home runs, 43 doubles, and 176 RBIs. As a senior, he hit .568 with 20 home runs, seven doubles, and 63 RBIs. He finished third in Kentucky Mr. Baseball voting in 1989. Snopek was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 11th round of the 1989 MLB Draft out of high school. He later played at Ole Miss, where he was the starting third baseman, earned All-SEC honors, and was named a Third Team All-American. He was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 6th round of the 1992 MLB Draft. Snopek played four seasons in Major League Baseball and finished with a .234 career batting average.

Gary “Noochie” Varner posted a .464 career batting average at Harrison County from 1995-1999, with 37 home runs, 53 doubles, and 207 RBIs, and also compiled a 17-5 pitching record. During that span, he was part of teams that went 163-35 and won five district championships, five regional championships, three sectional championships, and two state championships. Varner was named the 1998 State Semifinals MVP and earned All-State and Honorable Mention All-American recognition. He also finished in the top five of KHSAA career records in hits, doubles, runs scored, and RBIs. After high school, Varner played at St. Catherine Junior College, where he set records in multiple hitting categories. He was named a First Team NJCAA All-American in 2000 and was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 10th round of the 2000 MLB Draft. Varner played seven years in the minor leagues.