Kevin Morales/Daily Register
Portage head baseball coach Mike Hemming, left, and Randy Wade talk during a WIAA Division 2 Sectional Semifinal game against Prairie du Chien earlier this month. Hemming will be coaching the South All-Stars today and tomorrow at the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches All-Star Classic in Oshkosh.

During Mike Hemming's 10 seasons leading the Portage High School varsity baseball program, he has coached a number of excellent baseball players. But the talent level on the team he will be coaching today and tomorrow in Oshkosh will likely be the best group of high school ballplayers he will ever share a dugout with.

Hemming, who directed the Portage Warriors to a state championship in 2006, and had this year's Portage squad one win away from another trip to the state tournament, is on the coaching staff of the South All-Stars for the 26th Annual Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association All-Star Classic, held at EJ Schneider Field at Oshkosh North High School.

Hemming, who also coached in the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association All-Star Game, back when he was Portage's girls basketball head coach, said he found out he was selected as one of the coaches for the South All-Stars back at the start of the spring season.

"I was pumped. It's an awesome experience from the standpoint, you're just in awe of your talent pool," Hemming said. "You are around quality kids. You're around quality coaches. It's an award for putting in the time you do."

The All-Star Classic selects 72 of the top senior baseball players in the state to fill out four rosters. In the history of the game, seven Portage players have played in the contest. Hemming is the second Portage coach to be picked to coach at the game, as former PHS coach Ed Zydowsky was a coach in 1996.

Hemming will see a number of familiar faces on his team, as DeForest's Drew Barman, Mount Horeb's Jordan Christian, Egerton's Josh Eastman and Madison Edgewood's Robert Parman are all on his team, and all played against the Warriors this spring.

In his time as Portage's head coach, Hemming has had three players participate in the All-Star game (Shaun Corning in 2002, Josh Krueger in 2005 and Matt Kabele in 2006) and the coach was able to make it down to watch his guys play in two of those three years.

"It's a great atmosphere. It's just good solid talent," Hemming said. "It's fun to see good competitors that have maybe gone against each other, because there is a lot of teams that have eliminated each other from either the regional or sectional, but boy, they quickly forget that. They admire one another because they have the same type of character. They like to win. They know how to go about the game."

Hemming's South squad will play the North team today at 4 p.m. The South will then play the East on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and then the West team at 3 p.m.

"The bottom line, you hope to go there and win," Hemming said, "but at the same time, for me to sit back and watch these kids perform is going to be a treat for me."