Nothing is ever a sure thing.

Only a couple of years ago, Cody Herald led the Butler BlueSox to the Prospect League championship series as one of the youngest coaches in the league.

Shortly thereafter, Herald was named head baseball coach at Butler High School. He was 25 when he coached his first season with the Golden Tornado.

We sat in the sports office at the Butler Eagle, debating how Herald would handle things if he led Butler on a deep playoff run that was still going on when the BlueSox season started up.

Can't be two places at once, after all.

Alas, the BlueSox folded their tents a year later.

That still left Herald, a young head coach at his alma mater and serving as a substitute teacher there, with an opportunity down the road to become a full-time teacher in the district and coach the Golden Tornado for the next 30 years or more.

Even Butler athletic director Bill Mylan figured he wouldn't have to worry about hiring a new baseball coach for a long time.

But life has a way of changing things.

Herald got engaged and will marry his bride-to-be in early August. She is a law student at the University of Buffalo.

As much as he loves Butler — the man really does bleed Gold and White — Herald opted to support his better half and join her in New York.

Nobody can find fault in that.

But Cody Herald will be sorely missed around here.

I remember the guy competing in a Home Run Derby in Center Township at age 12. I remember his intensity on the basketball court and baseball field for Butler High School.

The kid wasn't real big, wasn't real strong, but, man, he was Mr. Intangible.

Simply a winner. Simply the type of player any team in any sport needed to have in order to win.

When his aspirations of becoming a professional baseball player dried up in the Frontier League, Herald tturned to coaching.

And he won again.

Not only did he take the BlueSox to the cusp of a championship, he led Butler High School to the WPIAL playoffs in his only two years as head coach.

This past spring, he did so with virtually no returning starters.

Still a young man himself, Herald's enthusiasm and intensity as a player simply carried over to his coaching. His knowledge of the game only added to that.

Butler is losing one of its most dedicated sons.

Whether it's Buffalo or some other town, someplace will be gaining a dedicated baseball coach.

Anyone who thinks Cody Herald is done with baseball doesn't know Cody Herald.

We should wish him well.

There's no way this community could ever pay back what he gave to us.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle