Maize's Rocky Helm wins national recognition
The Maize baseball coach is chosen high school coach of the year by one organization.
National awards for high school baseball coaches aren't given to the guy whose team overachieved and was thrilled just to reach the state tournament.
They're given to the top coaches of the country's greatest teams, groups of players who steamroll competition on the way to state dominance.
Maize's Rocky Helm has coached both kinds of teams, and maybe what made him this year's American Baseball Coaches Association Division I Coach of the Year was his ability to adapt.
"When I get kids, I don't care how good we are, we work to get them better," Helm said. "With so much talent (this year), though, I had to work to find a happy medium."
His 2011 Maize team was special, far beyond its 25-0 record and Class 6A championship. It's being touted as one of Kansas' best high school teams for the way it dominated opponents and its depth of talent.
So instead of focusing on things like situational hitting and bunt defenses, Helm's challenge this season was more mental than physical.
"I probably had eight to 10 kids on junior varsity who would be varsity starters anywhere else," Helm said. "I had to make them understand that their time would come, and they were interested in being part of something special."
But it wasn't always that way for Helm, a Kansas baseball player whose career ended in 1988. He stuck around on the KU staff for two seasons, then got a job at the Boeing Co. as an industrial engineer.
He was laid off a year later, but realized he wanted to be back in coaching, anyway.
Helm began teaching business and math classes at Maize while working as an assistant baseball coach. Seven years later, he was promoted to head coach.
He took the best of what he learned from his father, Jerry, a longtime high school football and basketball coach, and KU coach Dave Bingham. But it took a while to find the best style for high schoolers.
"When I started, I tried to coach like a college setting," Helm said. "I sat down a big group of kids and talked about a lot of things and finally a player said, 'Coach, I have no idea what you're talking about.'
"I had to build everything from there."
But over 13 years, Helm's Eagles have reached the state tournament 11 times, with six championship-game appearances and three titles (2003, 2005, 2011).
At some point, the college-type atmosphere — more laid back without a lot of yelling — became a good fit.
"One day we practiced and focused only on one aspect of hitting the entire time," senior infielder Tanner Johnson said. "We worked on getting our weight transferred through the ball. It's something that stuck with me the rest of the season."
Maize wasn't challenged much, but one game nearly ruined perfection. In the 6A semifinals, Shawnee Mission East held a 6-4 lead through three innings, but Maize scratched out single runs over three innings to win 7-6. It later run-ruled Blue Valley West 10-0 in the championship game.
Players said Helm's demeanor never changed in the tense semifinal.
"If it changed, he didn't show it," center fielder Thomas Clay said. "He was still pretty composed. He kept preaching to get (runners) on, get 'em over and get 'em in."
Helm will have another good team next season, but maybe not as nationally good. It will be another year to adapt to the players in front of him.
"I hope they would describe me as a guy who gets behind them and keeps steering them in the right direction and doesn't put pressure on them," Helm said. "I just try to get the best out of them to a man every time."