If someone would have told me the journey that I was going to go on  when I decided to do my first baseball camp in Union, MO, I never would have believed them.  Some of the greatest friendships I have in my life have come as a result of coaching baseball.   While it is “Just a game”, it is a game that teaches lessons that young men and women will carry forward with them the rest of their life.  

After our first baseball camp in Union, MO I was invited to coach as an Assistant High School baseball coach at Union High School, where I had the privilege of coaching from 2007-2011.  It was during this time that I also began teaching lessons at Balls n Strikes in Ballwin, MO for Aaron (Jaws) Jawarowski.  A few months into teaching lessons there Jaws asked me if I would be interested in helping him with a club baseball organization that he was wanting to start, that was when the Rawlings Tigers Baseball Club began.

It was during my first summer of coaching with the Rawlings Tigers that I met a young former MiLB player named David Stewart.  Dave and I would have some game changing conversations on our trips from city to city that summer. Nothing was of limits, but we mostly enjoyed talking about our faith.  Little did I realize the impact that those conversations would have on my life.  After one of our talks on our way home from Indianapolis I got an email from Dave about how he was interested in getting back in the game, and he wanted to know if I would be willing to help.  So I said sure.  It was pretty evident to me early on that I was in over my head, and I needed help.  So Dave and I decided to fly out to California to work with Alan Jaeger at one of the Jaeger Sports Clinics.  Which I was going to have to bow out of until a parent of one of the students that I was training asked if he could help me make it happen so that I could come back and help his son.  I was hesitant but eventually agreed and after a handshake agreement that I would help young Mike out, off we went.  Little did I know how much this trip was going to change things for me.    

After returning from camp a few months had passed and I was starting to do Jaeger Clinics here is St. Louis with Dave, when one day I got a call from an advisor who represented a couple of minor league players asking for help.  So I agreed to do what I could to help.  Little did I know that 8 months later I would be watching as one of those players was making his MLB Debut.  I had the privilege of watching it with none other that Mike Wefelmeyer, who during that time had been diagnosed with Leukemia.  He was 16 at the time and had called me to discuss his aggravation about his hair falling out.  I argued that it was only hair, and Mike rebuttled that it wasn’t my hair.  So I went in the bathroom shaved all my hair off, got in the car and drove to Wildwood, MO from Union to knock on his door look him in the eyes and say, “It’s my hair now too.”   Michael Wefelmeyer now has a Doctorates in Psychology and is happily married.   

I’ll spare you all of the details of the last 17 years, but the long story short version is that coaching baseball has given me an incredible opportunity to give back to a game that gave me so much beyond what I could have ever imagined.  It has taken me places I never could have imagined.  It has challenged me to get out of my comfort zone, to learn and grow.  It has pushed me into some of the most uncomfortable and exciting moments I’ve experienced in my life.  Baseball has strengthened my faith in so many ways.  Its has taught me humility, strength, belief, and so many other things.  

Coaching / training a player is not just about the game for me, it can’t be.  If we are going to ask a player to entrust us with something that they care so deeply about, you better have done the work to earn their trust. 

I look forward to the opportunity that is working with each and every player that I get the privilege to work with.  If you have questions please feel free to reach out, and as always, Keep Coming!!

-Coach Griff