Later this month, the Star Beacon will select its 31st Ashtabula County Player of the Year for high school baseball. The guy who won the first one is doing just fine these days.

Former St. John slugger Perry Detore was so dominant at the plate his senior year it was impossible for him not to be named the 1978 County Player of the Year. The son of Rocco and Rose Detore of Ashtabula hit .488, single-handedly won three games with his bat and almost led his team to the Class A state championship that year. He was the obvious choice when the Star Beacon first introduced the now-annual award that celebrates the best Ashtabula County has to offer in the sport.

“There are plenty of great memories from those days,” Detore said from his home in Corpus Christi, Texas. “All the home runs. Playing in the state tournament. There are so many of them it’s hard to pick just one of them.”

A star centerfielder and back-up catcher, Detore hit four home runs his senior year, three of which were the game-winning variety. He beat both Harbor and Ashtabula High on walk-off home runs and a third dinger in the top of the seventh of a game against Conneaut proved to be the game-clincher for the Heralds. He finished his senior season with 44 hits in 90 at-bats and led St. John to a 20-7 record in 1978.

“I remember I had a couple of game-winning home runs,” Detore said. “I hit one that beat Harbor against a guy named Jerry Arp. I beat Ashtabula with a home run against Kevin Ruple. They were two really good pitchers. But I guess the home run against Conneaut was probably my favorite game. I hit a go-ahead home run against a guy named Brian Adams. He had given up only a couple of hits through six innings. We were down 1-0 and I hit a home run in the last inning to win that one. That is a pretty good memory.”

Detore’s talent helped St. John reach the 1978 Final Four where it lost 3-2 to Middletown Fenwick in the state semifinals. He was one of three players off that team to be named to the first all-county team, joining teammates Jaime Brenkus (shortstop) and Lou DeCola (outfield) on the list. St. John coach Bill Schmidt was the first county Coach of the Year.

“We had a lot of good players on that team,” Detore said. “It wasn’t just me. We had a really good team. We had good teamwork. We did a good job playing together as a team.”

Detore was so good that the Kansas City Royals selected him out of high school in the 16th round of the 1977 amateur draft.

“I made it to Class A ball,” he said. “After a while I realized I wasn’t getting anywhere. It was a very difficult thing to play at that level.”

He was also pretty good on the gridion. He helped St. John reach the 1977 Class A state semifinals where it lost 8-7 to Crooksville in a blizzard at the Akron Rubber Bowl that year. Detore was selected All-Ohio for his play at linebacker.

“I remember that game like it was yesterday,” Detore said. “There was a foot of snow on the ground. They probably shouldn’t have even played that game. It was terrible. We were up 7-0, but they scored and got the two-point conversion to beat us. That was the game right there.”

After high school Detore moved to Colorado where he lived for 12 years before relocating to Corpus Christi eight years ago for work. He currently works in the medical field as a doctor’s assistant where he helps directly in heart surgeries.

“I’m a doctor’s assistant” he said. “We go in and install defibrillators and pacemakers. I work directly with the doctors and electrophysiologists. I help the doctor and do a lot of surgeries.”

Detore and his wife, Claudia, live in Corpus Christi with their three sons Silvio, 12, Mario, 14, and Dominic, 16.

He credits his parents and his upbringing in Ashtabula County for making him the person he is today.