Goldpanners Mourn the Loss of Coach Ed Cheff
The Alaska Goldpanners announced today that former field manager Ed Cheff, who managed the Panners for five seasons (2002-2006), died Saturday at his home in Sequim, Washington. He was 78. Cheff is fifth on the leaderboard for college coaches with the most wins with 1705, amassed in 34 seasons at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho.
Cheff won 16 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) titles and was NAIA coach of the year eight times. He was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1994 and the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Hall of Fame in 2006. He won the ABCA's Lefty Grove Award, given for lifetime achievement to amateur baseball. He has been a coach with the United States national baseball team (1991, 1994). Cheff was also named the National Baseball Congress coach of the year in 2002 when he guided the Goldpanners in his first season to a national championship at the NBC tournament in Wichita with a 8-3 win over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. The Goldpanners posted a 38-19 record that year while also winning the Alaska League title. In his five seasons with the Goldpanners, Cheff compiled a .645 winning percentage and was named the Alaska League’s coach of the year three times (2002, ’03, ’05). Cheff retired from coaching in 2010 and was inducted into the National Collegiate Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.
Cheff and his wife, Karen, a retired elementary school teacher, have three sons: Trever, Tyler, Toby.
