Where Are They Now? Jeff Dillingham

Jeff Dillingham can still remember pitching for Lowell, winning the program's first regional title in 1993.

The Red Devils beat No.1 LaPorte and Valparaiso to win the regional, something that still touches Dillingham when he talks about the success.

"(LaPorte coach) Ken Schreiber referred to me in his book, 'Coaching With Pride,' and I think that is pretty cool," Dillingham said. "It really is an honor to be mentioned in a book by a Hall of Fame coach. To think that I made, and our team made, that much of an impression on a great coach like Ken Schreiber is something I will always remember.

He was The Times 1993 Player of the Year in baseball as a senior when the Red Devils won the program's first and only regional title.

Dillingham was inducted in Lowell's sports Hall of Fame in 2010 and the 1993 baseball squad entered as a team last year.

"We were the class that got Lowell sports on a winning track," Dillingham said. "Football with Kirk Kennedy, I think they won the school's first football sectional that year. Basketball, we were good and played to packed houses and baseball, we just had a great run."

Dillingham followed a distinguished career at Lowell with one at Olivet Nazarene University. At Lowell, he was invited to Hoosier Magazine's Top 40 workout. He also was on the West squad in the East-West all-star game

"You think back, we all had a good time," he said. "At Olivet, we had some great basketball teams, going to the (NAIA) tournament in two of my four years. In baseball, we had a good run too."

He has been a local sales representative for Averitt Express for five years. Averitt deals in palatalized freight and it is Dillingham's job to work with clients to use his company if they are shipping to the Southeast. The Cookeville, Tenn.-based company has a center in Burbank, Ill., where Dillingham works.

"I love dealing and working with our customers to show them how Averitt is the right way for them to go," Dillingham said. "I love building the relationships and I think a lot of that comes from playing team sports as we work as a team here.

"If you are moving something that is on pallets from the Midwest to points south, I can help you."