Looking Back: Part 2 (Coaching High School Baseball, Year 2)

My second year of coaching high school baseball began with high expectations, but those expectations were dashed rather quickly.  The politics of the year before were gone and I could focus solely on coaching baseball.  The prospects of us having a good season were solid, since many of the players from the previous season were "expected" to return.  But that wasn't to be the case.


This team went 6-15. But only 5 of these guys would return.

 My starting catcher and third baseman both opted to transfer to a new school.  A school that would go on to win the state championship that season, the same team that beat us 6-2 in the first round of the post-season a year earlier.  My starting shortstop opted to take a year off and focus on other sports.  And then my best player, by all accounts, the player that pitched the no-hitter and hit the leadoff homerun to start the previous season, became academically ineligible and thus had to surrender playing his senior year.  So, by my account, I had lost my 5 best players and that would set the table for the season.

We were able to capture two wins over the course of the season, both rather wild wins at that.  The first win came on the road.  With our team holding a slim 1 run lead in the final inning, I brought in a reliever to close the 7th inning.  The leadoff batter promptly doubled and was moved to third on a ground out to 2nd.  So with the tying run at 3b, the amazing play happened to give us the win.  My normal 3b hadn't made a play in....forever!  Luckily, I had placed the starting pitcher who had just left the game over at 3b.  The next batter hit a linedrive that would have probably taken the head off of my original 3b.  However, the new 3b managed to snatch the liner out of mid-air, tag the base at 3b and record the game ending double play to give us the 1-run victory.

The 2nd win came at home and had another crazy finish.  Leading by 1, our opponent had loaded the bases in the top of the 6th inning (we play 7). I pulled the starter and brought in the same reliever who had gotten us out of the jam in our previous win.  He wasn't an expectional pitcher, but he threw the ball hard and was the only real option we had at that moment.  On the first pitch, he got the batter to hit a ground ball back up the middle.  The pitcher fielded it, fired home for the first out, and then the catcher fired to 1b for the 2nd out.  Another double-play to get us out of the jam.  Our opponent didn't get another runner on base in the 7th for our victory.  We turned 2 double plays all year.  Both secured our 2 wins.

Robbie in one of his first practices

Those were the bright spots.  There were plenty of low spots.  My oldest son (and only son at this point) was 3, going on 4 years old and we decided to put him in t-ball.  He was still little, but he had the ability to swing the bat and hit it off of the tee so we wanted to let him play.  He would have a few practices and then play his games on Tuesdays and Fridays.  There was the problem.  My high school games were on Tuesdays and Fridays, meaning I would miss nearly ALL of his t-ball games.  His first year getting to play baseball and I would have to miss his games.  I spent the first few games driving the 20 mins to his games so I could watch as much as I could before having to leave to go back to my coaching duties.  It wasn't the best situation.  After missing a few practices and games, I quickly decided I did not want to be missing any more of my son(s) baseball games.  After some conversations with my wife, I opted to resign as the varsity baseball coach effectice at the end of the season.


Me dressed for my Varsity game while trying
to teach Robbie to steal home



I informed my players of my decision when it was made, which meant we still had 2 months of baseball to play.  The players were appreciative of me for telling them of my plans.  I felt it was my responsibility to inform them since I personally felt responsible for getting a few of them to play.  Considering we had only 10 players again, there were 3 or 4 kids I practically begged to play and felt closer to them than some of the other kids.  Those kids didn't want me to quit, but I knew my heart wasn't in it.



In honesty, deciding to quit coaching high school baseball was a very good decision.  In the 3 years since then, I have had more fun coaching my son's team and coaching youth baseball more than any other coaching expierences that I have had.  There is less pressure in coaching youth baseball, though the nervousness of trying to compete is still there.  Gone were the pressures of HAVING TO WIN, and they were replaced by the desire to teach and have fun. Gone were the pressures of recruiting kids, dealing with angry parents, and the losing, and in their place were the pressures of creating a snack schedule, a practice plan that included learning and fun elements, and being with my own kids. 

That last thing is what made the decision an easy one to make!





Hopefully he'll always look UP to me