How Coaching High School and Travel Team Baseball Has Made Me a Fan

By Jamie Olson
Updated: November 19, 2010

Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory Baseball

Having an appreciation for the game of baseball goes much longer then rooting for your favorite player (Pedro Martinez) or your favorite team (Boston Red Sox). I’ve been fortunate that many of my experiences within baseball have allowed me to develop a greater passion for the game I love.

Over the past several years, I have had the good fortune to get into coaching. This first took place during my Internship with the YMCA and later while employed at the Jewish Community Center of Rhode Island where I taught youth sports classes and had the opportunity to assist former MLB Alumnus – Sam Horn with his baseball camp he ran out of our center.

In my experiences working with kids on a game they really enjoyed and it being a sport in which I loved brought me to seek out opportunities in coaching while living in Indianapolis, IN. The past two years, I have had truly amazing experiences serving as an Assistant Baseball Coach at both the high school and travel level. I’ve been able to coach under a former Division 1 Head Coach as well as a former Division 1 ballplayer.

I was able to work in a number of roles working under the tutelage of Head Coach – John Zangrilli. My responsibilities with the team included working with underclassmen both offensively and defensively; overseeing the underclassmen pitchers in pre-game preparation; implementing the use of spray charts and compiling advanced scouting reports for the varsity program throughout the season.

While serving as an Assistant Coach at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory, the program compiled a record of 23-8 (tying a school record for wins) and won the Indiana 3A Sectional and the Indiana Regional Championships before losing in the State Semi Finals. The program in many ways had even better success in 2010. With a record of 25-5, the team set a school record for wins, won the Marion County Championship (beating Christian Montgomery and Jared Ruxler – both whom will most likely be drafted in the 2011 MLB Draft), and repeating as the 3A Sectional Champion winner.

When I look back on all the accomplishments the program has had the past couple of seasons, I could look to the combined record of 48-13, numerous rankings at and near the top of the state rankings – but while all of this is special in its own right and has special meaning to the players involved, I am especially happy to see the success the program has had in developing ball players to be able to play at the collegiate level. Over the past 2 seasons, we have had 10 players go on to play college baseball at the Division 1, 2 and 3 levels respectively.

Finally, my experiences in coaching travel baseball in many ways have been just as successful. The summer team in which I had the opportunity to serve as an Assistant Coach on has sent an additional 5 players that will be playing at the Division 1, 3 and NAIA levels respectively.

The opportunity to work with ballplayers has given me a vested interest in seeing how they will continue to perform at the next level. Below you will find a list of the players presently playing or committed to playing college baseball.

Division 1:

Butler University – Jack Dillon

Wright State – Kevin Simms

Valparaiso – Greg Stiller

Ball State – Mitch Overley

Ball State – Tommy Green

Xavier – Tres Eberhardt

Division 2:

Northern Kentucky – Stevie Gipson-Eberhardt

Division 3:

DePauw University – Brendan Bolander

Wabash – Dakota Thatcher