Jim Frink didn't want to sound like Chicken Little, but he wanted to give a wake-up call to the community.
Frink, commissioner of the Louie Holcom Amateur Baseball Assn., took one look at his list of coaches for the association's upcoming season and knew trouble was brewing. He had to let people know that without help, the season might be over before it started.
He took out an advertisement in the Journal-World asking for volunteers. The ad described the severe shortage of coaches and warned ominously, "We may be faced with the unpleasant thought of no baseball this summer."
"After the first ad ran, my phone was going," Frink said. "When I looked at it on March 1, I had nobody. I thought, 'Wow, I'm in trouble. Tryouts are March 31. I've got a month.' I thought it was something that might get this community going. Kids want to play ball, but nobody wants to help 'em. I had a lot of people call."
It's still not enough. Though Frink said there will be an LHABA season, he's still short six coaches for the Houk-Ice (13- to 14-year-olds) and Holcom (15-16) leagues combined. And the Harker League which last year had two teams of 17- to 20-year-olds has no coaches.
"That's an odd breed of kid," Frink said. "Two years ago, we had four teams. Last year we had two. I don't have any applications for Harker League teams this summer, so we could say Harker's not going to play. There will be a Holcom League. There will be a Houk-Ice league. We are going to play. But the Harker League I'm not sure."
Frink isn't alone in his coaching search. The American Legion-sponsored Lawrence Amateur Baseball Assn. which fields two 18-and-under and two 16-and-under teams is looking for a head coach for its 18-and-under Outlaws team. The LABA has run classified ads seeking to fill the position, but there has been no response.
"If we don't have a coach, I don't know how we would have a team," said LABA board member and longtime coach Lee Ice. "It's a hard, cold fact, if you don't have anybody to coach, you can't have a team. Everything's in place for that team. We can fund it. We have uniforms and equipment. The schedule's done. Now we just need somebody who's ready to lead a group of young men, make a couple of decisions at third base and fill out a lineup card."
Before he placed his ad, Frink consulted with Ice, and they commiserated about the lack of coaches.
The LHABA's Houk-Ice League typically has 10-12 teams, while the Holcom League has five or six. Throw in the Outlaws and assume a roster of about 12 players per team, and
"We were looking at 100, 150 kids looking for leadership and a place to play," Ice said. "I know people are busy, but that's a lot of kids sitting around home."
LABA has worked the high school coaches Lawrence High's David Petry and Free State's Mike Hill into the fold. Petry will coach the 16-and-under Mavericks and Hill will coach the 16-and-under Bandits this summer.
"That's been really good for the program," Ice said. "I'd like to get more high school coaches involved. It might get to the point we have to start paying some people. But once you start doing that, the pressure of hiring and firing and politics play into that. We want people who want to be there. There aren't too many stupid people like me and Carl Brooks who have been doing it for years."
While the LABA continues to scramble to fill its remaining position, the LHABA's Frink has relaxed a little.
"We're not going to run any players away," he said. "The LHABA has an agreement with the city that it will be a no-cut league. We have enough coaches and enough options, we'll be OK. If there are a couple of teams without coaches, we have people who are willing to come in and help draft the teams. When the team is formed, I'll have a meeting with the parents and say, 'Somebody has to step forward.' I don't think we'll get to that.
"Ninety percent of me says we won't hit that barrier. But 10 percent says it could happen. Never said it won't happen."
While Frink's ad had a positive result, the potential negative impact won't be known until March 31, when tryouts are held.
"I was concerned parents might read that and say, 'Well, we're going to SCABA (Shawnee County Amateur Baseball Assn.) or Johnson County,'" Frink said. "That's the negative. Parents might read that and say, 'Johnny down the street plays for SCABA.' We might have kids leaving the county to play. I hope we don't lose any kids because of this."
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