Anyone who has a well-known older sibling or parent can empathize with Tommy Mangino. Or Stanley Redwine Jr., or Ryne and Robby Price.

Mangino’s dad, Mark, is the head football coach at Kansas University. Tommy likes having a famous father, but loves it when his friends don’t make a big deal out of it.

“They see my dad and they say, ‘Hey, there goes your dad,’ not, ‘Hey, there’s coach Mangino,'” said Tommy, a senior at Lawrence High. “It makes me feel good to hear that.”

Stanley, Ryne and Robby are in the same situation, but none need worry. People already know talented athletes when they see them.

Free State High’s baseball team has thrived with Ryne, a junior, and Robby, a freshman. The Firebirds, 13-0 and Class 6A’s top-ranked team, are off to the best start in the school’s history.

Redwine, a Free State senior, holds the school record in the triple jump and placed fourth at the state track and field meet last year.

Mangino, the starting quarterback for last year’s 8-3 district football champion, is a two-year starter for the Lions’ baseball team and leads them in nearly every offensive category.

Sometimes, being the son or daughter of a high-profile coach can be trying, but it hasn’t affected any of them.

“It can be tough,” Free State baseball coach Mike Hill said. “I’m the son of a coach, and there’s a lot to live up to. It can be hard to thrive in that regard. But that’s part of your responsibility. They’re not fazed by that. It’s not a hindrance.”

Four Kansas University coaches have sons involved in Lawrence high school sports. Pictured are, clockwise from top, Stanley Redwine, Tommy Mangino, Robby Price and Ryne Price. The athletes posed Sunday in front of the Kansas Union.

These guys are good

The four aren’t talented athletes just because their dads are coaches — though it doesn’t hurt. Often, a coaches’ son or daughter will be fundamentally sound and have a solid work ethic. When the KU men’s basketball team stormed to the Final Four the last two seasons, much was made of Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich having dads who coached.

That holds true in Lawrence.

“I’m sure a lot of it does,” LHS baseball coach David Petry said. “You can tell just by (Mangino’s) knowledge of the game, his approach to the game and how he plays. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact his dad’s a coach.”

It doesn’t matter that Mangino’s dad is a football coach. It’s just that he’s a coach.

When his dad was an assistant coach at Oklahoma, Tommy watched every game and went to several practices during the Sooners’ 2000 national-championship season. Tommy remembers having a blast that season — “A lot of kids just don’t get a chance to see something like that,” he said — but it also impacted his view of athletes.

“He was able to go to the practice fields, the weight room and see how much work these guys put in,” Mark Mangino said. “A lot of people just see the finished product. He’s seen the good, the bad and the ugly, and he’s benefited from it.”

¢ These kids chips off the old ‘Hawk

The Prices echo those sentiments.

Their dad, Ritch, the first-year coach of the KU baseball team, coached for eight seasons at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo in California and has kept his sons around big-time baseball most of their lives. Ryne — like the former Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg, but pronounced Ryan — and Robby learned what it took to excel from athletes who excelled in college.

“You see how they have to work to be good,” Ryne said. “Everything that goes into that, it makes you want to work as hard to play the way they do.”

They’ve also brought some unusual — OK, downright funny — quirks. Both Prices wear their hats with a straight bill, though Ryne’s is flat. No curve, no bend. A couple of Firebirds have started wearing their hats the same way.

“I’ve been wearing it like this since fifth grade,” he said. “There were some older kids wearing it like that and you wanted to look like them.”

Those older kids? The studs they watched growing up.

Work, work, work

There is a downside. The dads rarely have an opportunity to see their sons play.

Ritch Price has seen one game in the Firebirds’ 13-0 start this season because of conflicting schedules. Price drops nearly everything else when it comes to his kids. If they ask, he’ll throw batting practice, go over their swing, or anything else they ask.

“When I speak at clinics, one of the first things I say to coaches is, ‘How many of you have kids?'” Price said. “Then I tell them that no matter how much you’re doing, never cheat your own sons.”

That sums up the Redwine spring, too.

Stanley Sr., now in his third year as KU’s head track and field coach, has seen his son perform once this season — at the Kansas Relays. He might be able to see his son jump again at Class 6A regionals and the state meet in Wichita later this month.

“Hopefully, there’ll be others,” Stanley Sr. said. “He understands that’s the way it is. Every chance I get to see him, I will.”

What’s next?

Redwine may see more of his son next year. Stanley Jr. hasn’t settled on a college yet, but has several options. Free State coach Steve Heffernan believes Redwine could be a fabulous college track athlete — his dad grew two inches in college — or he could play football.

He might be leaning that way.

“Football’s fun,” he said with a grin. “You get to take out your aggression hitting people. That’s always fun.”

Gregarious and talkative, Redwine is the typical high school student when it comes to choosing a college. He’ll lay out his options, but making a choice is tough.

“His mother and I would love to know,” Stanley Sr. said. “Sometimes, as a coach that’s trying to recruit you that drives you crazy. He’s definitely a high school kid in that respect.”

Mangino will stay in baseball, but has not chosen a college. He will visit Ohio State later this month, and Florida State and Iowa also have contacted him. He has also talked with Price at KU.

Price’s sons, meanwhile, are heading back to California this summer where they’ll participate in more than 100 games.