SISK: Coaching for the love of the game

Why can’t we take what we love and teach it to some kids,” Josh Wood said, his arms folded showing a tattoo on his right arm that screamed Dixie.

“We can’t play ball no more,” Ethan Carr added, “but we want to get back on the field.”

Josh Wood and Carr along with three of their friends coached a 7- and 8-year-old Augusta County Little League baseball team this season. While that alone is enough to make them small-town heroes in the eyes of the youth they mentored, what sets them apart is only one year ago, they were still unwrapping their high school graduation gifts.

Carr, Josh Wood, Jared Hoy, Jake Wood and Travis Ritchi are only a year removed from high school, coaching kids only 10 years their junior.

Carr, the head coach, was looking for a way to get back on the field and contacted the organization about helping out in February.

“They called me back later and said there wasn’t a coach for the 8-year-olds,” Carr said. “We all played baseball growing up so.”

Thus, the story began.

At first parents didn’t know what to expect of the fresh Wilson Memorial graduates.

“We went in there thinking they were going to hate us,” Ritchi said, “because we were only 18.”

When they first met the team, one thing became apparent that the coaching staff would struggle with.

“Attention spans,” Josh Wood said.

But the five would say if it was the kids’, or the coaches who had the problem.

As the season progressed, the team began to take shape.

“Just seeing the kids improving, that was awesome,” Ritchi said. “Listening to my dad and the other coaches growing up is you just want to see them improve.”

The team finished with an 11-3 record, and while Little League isn’t about wins and losses, Carr doesn’t even need to think before rolling that statistic off his tongue.

At the end of the year, the parents who started out as skeptics praised the group.

“We never coached before,” Ritchi said. “Talking with other parents and coaches they said the kids acted real good with us, I don’t know if it’s because we were close to their age or we just got lucky this year.”

The coaches said they want to return next year but will have to wait for a slot to open up.

“We might have been lucky this year with the parents and the kids, but if they are like that every season,” Ritchi said.