Timpanogos baseball coach Kim Nelson speaks with Dakoda West after a sport in opposition to Jordan at Jordan Excessive in Sandy on Friday, April 1, 2022. Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
Timpanogos and Jordan compete in a highschool baseball sport at Jordan Excessive in Sandy on Friday, April 1, 2022. Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
BYU soccer coach Bronco Mendenhall watches a drill intently throughout BYU spring soccer observe. March 17, 2005. Longtime Timpanogos baseball coach Kim Nelson coached Mendenhall at American Fork Excessive, and as soon as officiated a soccer sport Mendenhall coached when the Cougars performed Colorado State. Stuart Johnson, Deseret Information
Within the final couple of years, longtime baseball coach Kim Nelson has seen two no-hitters and even a triple play.
However as Timpanogos Excessive’s 2022 season progresses, guess what's the most typical query the 65-year-old coach hears?
“I don’t have something to announce,” stated Nelson, who, in the event you’re counting, has been a highschool baseball coach for 42 straight seasons. “I hear the rumor mills on a regular basis. There's nothing to it. I nonetheless get pleasure from teaching. I benefit from the relationship with the children; I like the sport. For proper now, I’m not able to get into that golf cart and journey off into the sundown. I don’t have any goal.”
Nelson has by no means been one to toot his horn, however his sports activities profession has been stuffed with highlights. It began in Davis County, the place he starred in soccer and baseball at Viewmont Excessive. The Vikings challenged for the state baseball championship all three seasons he was on the crew and gained it as soon as. That helped earn him a scholarship to BYU, and he had a positive profession, there, too.
In line with BYU data, he batted .335, smacked 30 dwelling runs and even stole a couple of bases.
Nelson stated he had an opportunity to play skilled baseball, however turned down a California Angels contract after his junior yr as a way to keep in class. He additionally wished to make the most of a possibility to play on a USA All-Star crew the next summer time that narrowly missed a gold medal in an beginner event in Central America.
“It was a enjoyable expertise,” he recalled. “Each sport we performed (in Nicaragua), there have been 20,000-30,000 followers. It was superb. I performed most video games and had affordable success.”
At about the identical time, Nelson additionally received married, and that too modified his priorities. After a brief stint residing at dwelling together with his dad and mom, the place he served as an assistant baseball coach at Viewmont, he was provided a job as a instructor/coach at American Fork Excessive and has been on the rise ever since.
Nelson headed the Cavemen program for 16 years, then moved to Timpanogos when the college opened in 1996. He has been the one baseball coach the Timberwolves have identified. After incomes two crowns at American Fork, he has led Timpanogos to 6 state titles.
“I keep in mind going to these first coaches clinics, and seeing the coaches and remembering, ‘They have been there after I was enjoying,’ and now I can solely think about what a few of these youthful coaches are considering after I stroll in there.”
Modifications within the sport
From 1980 to 2022, a lot has occurred in between. It definitely has with highschool baseball.
“It has modified loads for the higher,” he stated. “With the quantity of baseball that youthful children are enjoying … touring groups …. there's a good factor to that. There are all the time the cream-of-the-crop gamers, who will get consideration. The place baseball has modified is that layer simply beneath them.
“There are extra gamers which are getting alternatives. Once I went to highschool, you could possibly play (faculty baseball) at Weber, Utah, BYU and SUU, however the JCs (junior faculties) are higher. There are additionally numerous children which are leaving the state and enjoying at JCs and Division II colleges in different states. That’s occurred much more within the final 4 to 5 years.”
Nelson additionally seen the negatives, notably at Timpanogos, which has needed to juggle its success with harm issues.
“The children are enjoying in opposition to higher competitors, however not so good is the quantity they play. I’ve had three children within the final 5 years which have had perhaps not Tommy John surgical procedure, however near it. That comes from pitching an excessive amount of.”
Luckily, teaching (and managing) isn’t as demanding on his physique, and the most important stresses Nelson faces lately are from his household. A number of of his eight youngsters have made highschool baseball video games a part of their favourite pastime for a few years. Even Nelson’s spouse, Leslie, stated she has no thought how they'll fill their time when there’s no extra Timpanogos video games to attend.
Nelson, after all, tries to brush that apart — at the very least publicly — whereas he leads the Timberwolves. Their final state crown was two years in the past and, although theysuffered a three-game sweep at Jordan final weekend, he feels they nonetheless have an opportunity.
Attempting to find one other title
“There’s little doubt we’re nonetheless looking for that management,” he stated. “Jordan is an efficient crew. These first two video games, they made profitable performs; we didn’t. If we win these two video games, which might have gone both route, then Friday might have been totally different.
“It was an in depth sport and we received the bases loaded in that one (fifth) inning, then we hit floor balls proper at any person. Perhaps in the event that they discover a gap, then we’re again even. Now we have the flexibility to be a superb as anyone else.
Timpanogos and Jordan compete in a highschool baseball sport at Jordan Excessive in Sandy on Friday, April 1, 2022.
Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
“After that, it’s as much as teaching.”
And that can all the time be an element that can favor the Timberwolves, who're 6-6 total and 3-3 in Area 8 play. What's going to it take for his squad — or every other — to win all of it?
“I all the time look again to (the yr) 2000,” he stated. “It was our fourth yr (at Timpanogos). We had a couple of good gamers, but it surely was a yr that I can actually take a look at and see the seniors have been the gamers. They labored very laborious and created a superb environment. They cared about one another. That’s what I’ve regarded for the final 20 years.
“It helps to have expertise, however I’ve all the time tried to emphasise these guys getting into that position and exhibiting how laborious you must work, and each time, a youthful child or two you don’t anticipate steps up and makes performs.”
It’s these kinds of children Nelson will recall finest when he hangs up his cleats for the ultimate time. A type of children, he remembered, was former BYU soccer coach Bronco Mendenhall.
“He was my ferocious second baseman,” Nelson stated.
Greater than a baseball coach
Apart from being a participant and a coach, Nelson’s profession additionally included a protracted stint as a soccer official. The truth is, he refereed faculty video games for 15 years and likes to inform this story:
“I used to be within the Mountain West Convention for 11 of these years and, in Bronco’s first or second yr at BYU, my crew received assigned a BYU-Colorado State sport in Fort Collins.
“My crew knew I went to BYU, however I didn’t inform anyone that I coached Bronco. I used to be a facet decide on the CSU facet (of the sector), however earlier than the sport, we go to the opposite facet of the sector and shake arms with the coaches and introduce ourselves. We go over there, and shake arms with Bronco, and he stated, ‘I do know him. He’s MY coach’ All the opposite officers … their eyes received so huge.”
BYU soccer coach Bronco Mendenhall watches a drill intently throughout BYU spring soccer observe. March 17, 2005. Longtime Timpanogos baseball coach Kim Nelson coached Mendenhall at American Fork Excessive, and as soon as officiated a soccer sport Mendenhall coached when the Cougars performed Colorado State.
Stuart Johnson, Deseret Information
Nelson has since retired from officiating, however admitted it wasn’t as significant as when he'll cling up his baseball cleats the ultimate time.
“Baseball has all the time been a household affair,” he stated. “The help all my children, and particularly my spouse, have given me to do one thing I get pleasure from simply makes it higher.”
Nelson additionally fondly recalled the position his older brother, Dave, performed in his profession. He referred to as Dave “one of many greatest influences in my life.” Dave Nelson coached at Utah Valley from 1976-90 and died of colon most cancers in 2002 at age 52.
Nelson will probably study he performed an analogous position in different’s lives, if they arrive out of the woodwork after he retires.
Till then, he’ll maintain attempting to win one other state crown.
Finally, he admitted, he’ll probably change his focus to golf. He and Leslie just lately moved to a house that borders a golf course, and Nelson usually will get a head begin on the day by taking his golf equipment and chopping by the fence onto the course and enjoying as many as 9 holes earlier than the clubhouse even opens.
He doesn’t want a cart, although, and it could be some time earlier than he does.