Marblehead Cal Ripken 11s and Babe Ruth 13s Coach John Reardon took on coaching both teams this year to help develop the future stars of Marblehead, and also, to spend more time with his kids, John and Charlie.
“Just being able to spend more time with my kids,” Reardon said. “Work was pulling me away from that direction and I just wanted to be more of a dad. I played baseball in high school, so I just wanted to spend more time with my boys.”
Reardon said coaching wasn’t something he initially thought he wanted to do, but one day he was on the sidelines watching one of his kids play a game when he realized he didn’t agree with what was going on.
“I said to myself I had to put up or shut up. That’s when me and one of my buddies first got into coaching,” Reardon said.
Now, Reardon is in year number five of coaching youth baseball.
“I’ve coached since my oldest son was 8 years old, so I have been coaching for five years now,” Reardon said. “I was the president of Marblehead Baseball for the last three years and this has been my first year not being the president, and it has been a nice change of pace.”
However, this is the first year coaching Charlie and the 11s.
“This was my first year coaching my youngest son. The plan going into the year was to just coach Charlie and not John. John moved to the big diamond, so I thought I would just coach Charlie,” Reardon said. “Just hanging around my oldest son and his friends, I thought that these kids are so cool and fun to be around that I’m going to coach them again.”
When asked what Reardon likes about coaching, he said he’s all about development.
“It’s the best,” Reardon said. “When something happens in practice and you work on it and then it happens in a game, you’re like, ‘That’s what I’m talking about.’ Seeing their development and recognizing a problem and working on how to fix it is great.”
As a coach, Reardon noticed the difference between the big diamond and small diamond regarding the pace of the game.
“Things seem to happen a lot slower on the bigger field. The base path is longer, the throws are longer, everything is just bigger,” Reardon said. “The tone has been a bit more laid back. You’re not on the field as much as you are with the younger kids where everything seems to be a lot faster and more going on.”
“It’s a whole different ballgame going from the small diamond to the big diamond. Some of the kids struggle with it at first. Their arms are sore by the middle of May because it’s such a big throw, but it’s been fun,” Reardon said.
Reardon admitted, at times, the schedule was “a bit crazy” coaching his two sons – like on Tuesdays, when one game finished, he quickly had to drive to the next.
“[The] schedule has aligned pretty well, but there have been a couple of crazy nights like last night where you coach one game and then run to the next field for the next game,” Reardon said.
Unfortunately for the 13s, they lost to Taunton 2-1 in the state tournament quarterfinals. Despite the loss, Reardon said it was a great tournament overall.
“It was the Babe Ruth District Tournament where you do pool play first then break it down afterwards,” Reardon said. “We won our pool going 4-0, which was great. We just, unfortunately, lost a heartbreaker to Taunton.”
The 11s are having a tougher season, but Reardon likes the hard work players have shown.
“Eleven-year-olds are struggling a little bit. We are a little thin in a couple of areas but we’re playing hard,” Reardon said. “We beat Stoneham last night in a Bay State game 13-3, which was nice. They’re trying their hardest and they’re improving each game which is great.”
Win or lose, Reardon said one of his favorite things about coaching is seeing his players – and former players – around town.
“Just seeing the kids throughout town is fun. Going down to Tony’s Pizza and them coming up to you asking how everything is. [It’s] special,” Reardon said.