Anyone who has tried to recruit parents to coach youth sports knows it can be a challenge. With so many other pressing family obligations, and sometimes multiple children participating in sports, a parent’s time is premium. Then there are parents like Jason Ramirez, who spends seven days a week coaching three different teams.
The Sun caught up with Ramirez at baseball practice for Santa Maria Venom, an 8-years-old-and-younger boys travel team, and talked about what motivates him to put so much effort into coaching.
“What keeps me going is seeing the growth in players and seeing them flourish. And it might happen in one game for one player or it might happen for three,” he said.
Ramirez began coaching 11 years ago when the oldest of his four children became involved in sports, and he continued as the other three became involved. Now he coaches his two youngest—Sarae, who plays on his 14-and-younger girls softball travel team, and Manny, who plays baseball with Santa Maria Venom as well as football on Ramirez’s 8-years-old-and-younger travel football team.
Ramirez said when he started coaching travel baseball, his oldest son he was 12 years old. What he learned competing against teams in other cities was that getting an earlier start learning the fundamentals gave the players on those teams a competitive edge.
“We played some very high caliber teams and I was like, ‘What’s the secret here?’ and the secret was they started at a very young age,” Ramirez said. At the time he vowed that if he was going to coach again, he’d start his players at a much younger age, and that’s just what he’s done with his son Manny’s football and baseball teams.
And so far the team is off to a good start. After only the second tournament as a team, Santa Maria Venom made it to the championships playing against teams from cities like Bakersfield, Tulare, and Hanford, as well as from the Central Coast. The team ultimately took second place.
Ramirez, a Santa Maria High School alumnus, played football, wrestling, and baseball in high school followed by semi-pro baseball for the Santa Maria Stars after high school. His daughter is now a freshman at Santa Maria High, and once she begins playing for the school his time will be devoted to coaching Manny’s baseball and football teams. That’s something Manny is perfectly fine with.
“He’s like the best coach I ever like [had],” Manny said.
Mike Roberson is a girls’ softball coach at Righetti High School and assistant coach for Santa Maria Venom. His son, Aaden, is second baseman for the team.
“Jason’s real good with his approach toward the kids. He starts with the basics. At this age it’s important to start at the basics, and the fundamentals,” Roberson said. “The way he approaches the game and shows the kids and motivates them—that’s what’s important for my son, and that’s why I’m glad to be part of this.”
Ramirez said he likes the process of piecing together a team—sometimes of second and third choice players—and helping them gain the skills to be competitive.
“I’ve always been able to make average teams good and compete. I like being an underdog,” he said.
He said that was the way with Santa Maria Venom. When the team first got together, things weren’t looking so good, he said. But with a month and a half of hard work, the pieces began to come together. That’s when you see the boost of confidence or even maybe a first hit in the game for a player. That’s the payoff that makes the long hours and daily commitment worth it for a coach, and for the player as well. And Ramirez lets them know it.
“The time when they do perform well and do what we ask them to do, oh boy, they hear it. And I make a big deal about it, and everybody hears it. And just to see the kids, the smile the confidence, you can’t put a price on it,” he said.
Recently, the team played in a championship against a Bakersfield team, which was sponsored, sporting the same bags and top-of-the-line bats, and when they played it was at a higher level than Ramirez’s team. It reminded him of the first time he coached his oldest son’s 12-years-old-and-younger team and was told the other teams had been playing since they were 7 and 8 years old. This time, however, they were 8-years-old-and-younger, having already played together several years. Later, the coach of that team told Ramirez the players had been playing together for three years.
Ramirez said Santa Maria doesn’t have teams that start them at 5 and younger, so his team of 7- and 8-year-olds is probably the closest to starting them at a competitive travel ball level. At least for now.
“The grandkids will probably be the next. Maybe when I have the grandkids I might start a 5U like I heard those Bakersfield guys talking about,” Ramirez said.
Shelly Cone can be reached at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 5-12, 2015.