‘He made things fun’: Coach helped transform Palatine boys baseball
Tim Storm helped chart the path for Palatine youth baseball, gaining the respect of both the players and their parents.
Storm, a Palatine resident, died Saturday at age 69.
An accountant by trade, he began volunteering for the Palatine Park District as a board member and coach of Palatine Boys Baseball in 1986. He rose to become vice president in 1988 and president in 1989.
“He was so wonderful with the kids,” his friend Steve Pohl said. “I didn’t know of any parents that didn’t think the world of him. He made things fun, and he talked to them as his people, as opposed to kids.”
Storm was instrumental in the merger between the Palatine South Little League and Palatine Boys Baseball, resulting in the creation of Palatine Youth Baseball.
During his term as president, Palatine Youth Baseball also began offering softball.
He then began to coach for the Palatine Baseball Association in 1993 and later helped merge Palatine Youth Baseball and Softball and the Palatine Baseball Association into one cohesive program.
He and Immanuel Lutheran Church Pastor Warren Schilf started the church’s Shining Stars baseball and softball camp in 2014. The program, which began at Community Park in Palatine and later moved to Hamilton Park, started with 12 kids and grew to 175 in 11 years.
“Stormy was my partner in getting that camp going,” Schilf remembered. “His knowledge and his love of baseball and his connections were a large part of getting the word out.”
The Palatine Park District honored Storm in 2013, when he was named an Honor Roll appointee at the annual Volunteer Recognition Luncheon.
Pohl met Storm when his 11-year-old son Casey played for Storm’s travel baseball team. After the death of Pohl’s son from cancer in 2003, Storm was instrumental in having Palatine Youth Baseball and Softball’s spring tournament named the Casey Pohl Memorial Tournament, one of the biggest youth baseball tournaments in Northern Illinois.
Services will be held at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 200 Plum Grove Rd., Palatine. Visitation will take place from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., followed by a memorial service from 7 p.m. until 8 p.m.