Change is a constant for these coaches in game they love

When St. Charles North baseball coach Todd Genke comes home from a North Star game, it's often not long before he's in the doghouse with his better half.

The reason? Nothing that bad. It's actually one Genke wishes his own players would get in trouble for - eating and sleeping baseball.

"I used to watch baseball all the time, I still do, I drive my wife nuts because I come home and watch baseball after a game," Genke said. "We really try to teach the game to them but it's amazing some of the things they don't know."

Taking an informal survey of area coaches about what has changed most from when they were kids growing up playing baseball to today when they are coaching it yielded a wide range of answers.

Everything from Genke's observation that kids don't follow the sport as closely to a change in the way the game is umpired to much more off-season baseball opportunities - the later probably the most common response.

"One of the biggest differences is guys come to you well prepared," Batavia coach Matt Holm said. "It's not just a seasonal thing anymore. While we have guys who are two- or three-sport athletes, most of them even when it's another season they are hitting in a cage. They come in well prepared."

And all that off-season work, all the baseball academies and private instruction and everything else, doesn't always make life easier for the high school coaches.

"They don't play catch enough, they don't go out and play pickup baseball like we used to do," Genke said. "It just seems like their knowledge of the game is different because they don't sit down and watch baseball."

Geneva coach Matt Hahn said the biggest change he sees is in the strike zone. It has grown considerably smaller since he played which makes life all the more difficult for pitchers.

"I think the umpires do a good job of understanding the rules, go to training sessions, and are usually in the right place to make the calls," Hahn said. "But to expect a 15- to 18-year-old to hit a major league strike zone is not right. In the age of pitch counts, it is no wonder that a high school pitcher will throw 85 pitches in 5 innings."

It's only been a little over a decade since West Aurora coach John Reeves played at the school he now coaches. He certainly has noticed the same growth in year-round baseball players, even in that relatively short time span.

"One of the big things is in the off-season there is so much more for baseball players to do," Reeves said. "When I played in the beginning of March you come in, have a month of practice, and when the season ended that was pretty much it. You'd play some summer ball, 20 games. There weren't all these travel teams and all that stuff. There is so much more in the summer and a more year-long commitment."

Like Genke, Reeves isn't sure all the off-season baseball is always a good thing.

"It helps and it hurts," Reeves said. "It helps because guys get to play more. I think it hurts because they sometimes get burned out. I'm a big supporter of our guys playing other sports because it makes you a better athlete."

Holm did just that when he was a student at Batavia.

"You played all three sports, you played what was in season," Holm said. "Now guys are more specialized. I always push guys to do as much as they can because it's the high school experience and while we have guys going to play college ball, the majority aren't going to. So they should have as much fun doing as many things as they possibly can."

Genke said his infielder Coz Vivirito is the only three-sport athlete at St. Charles North this year.

"So many kids are starting to just play one sport and I don't think that's a good situation," Genke said. "We always tell kids we want kids to play more than one sport. Fifteen, 20 years ago almost every one of your kids was in three sports, or at least two sports. It's a shame because there's a lot of opportunities to be a competitor."

jlemon@dailyherald.com