06/05/2026
A strong message from Coach Drew-
The Life of a Young Travel Baseball Coach
I work 40–60 hours a week at a juvenile corrections facility. Any free time I have outside of work is dedicated to our team.
I handle tournament scheduling, practice schedules, team events, hotel bookings, and daily communication with parents. Thankfully, I have 2 extremely supportive bosses that understand and appreciate what we do for young athletes, because much of this work gets squeezed into any available free time I can find during work hours. Between work, commuting, practices, and getting enough sleep to function, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.
I’m fortunate to have a few great people who help with fundraising. Their efforts help us cover tournament expenses so we can keep our costs as low as possible for families—essentially charging only enough to cover uniforms.
I also coordinate practice facilities, communicate schedules to players, parents, and coaches, and make sure everything is organized behind the scenes. Over the course of a season, I use nearly 100 hours of earned PTO so I can attend as many team events as possible. I rarely miss anything.
And that’s just the administrative side of coaching.
Then comes the actual coaching itself.
There are practice plans to create, schedules to coordinate, and constant efforts to balance the needs of players, parents, and coaches. No practice time will ever be perfect for everyone, but we do our best to make it work. There are phone calls with my coaching staff every day discussing upcoming practices and games, evaluating how our players are developing, and sometimes simply checking on how they’re doing in life.
When game day arrives, our responsibility is to guide these young athletes and help them perform to the best of their abilities while continuing to grow as people.
The reality is that none of us get paid a penny to do any of this.
We do it because we love the game, but more importantly, because we care about your sons. Baseball is simply a game. However, it also provides one of the greatest opportunities to teach life lessons, build character, develop accountability, and prepare young people for the real world.
I don’t need a pat on the back. I don’t need recognition or praise. Anyone who truly knows me understands how passionate I am about this team. I view every player in our program as one of my own.
My staff and I do this because we genuinely care about these boys and consider it a blessing to be part of their journey.
This message is simply for those who may not always see the countless hours, sacrifices, and commitments that coaches everywhere make behind the scenes. We do it because being a positive role model and making a difference in a young person’s life is worth every minute.
Before this season I never truly understood the weight of the coaching brotherhood. I am so thankful for the guys that I have in my corner to bounce things off of or just let me vent to them from time to time. You know who you are!
Thank you for taking the time to read and GO BIG STIX!
-Coach Drew
