Forty-two years in the coach’s box. Dozens of championship trophies, countless wins and losses.
Despite all the accolades, no scoreboard could dictate the impact that coach Mark Kain had on the lives of the hundreds of kids who poured through his dugouts over the years. Last month, the longtime local youth and high school baseball instructor walked off the diamond for the last time as a coach.
The 61-year-old Annadale resident, who has guided young ballplayers ages eight through 18, will instead turn his attention toward spending more time at home with family. However, he’ll continue to give personal lessons and assist his sons, Thomas and Mark, at the Linedrive Baseball Academy, which he founded.
“It was a long run, it was a great run,” said Kain, who acknowledged that he’s received endless messages from former players in the weeks since announcing retirement.
“I went to so many places, met so many really good people, and I got to coach both of my sons. I did everything I wanted to do. I think it’s time that I’m done,” he said. “This isn’t about me or winning, I had an impact on kids’ lives. If you ask me X’s and O’s, I can go step for step with anybody as a baseball coach, but I never understood the impact we that we have. It changed the last 15 years or so of my coaching. I started to become the father that somebody didn’t have, the big brother somebody didn’t have. I became the guy that was going to give you the confidence that maybe you didn’t have for whatever reason.”
For Kain, it’s never been about wins and losses. It’s more about the annual Christmas and birthday cards, or the routine texts and FaceTimes he receives from his former players.
“If I can take one thing out of 42 years of coaching, those were the important things,” he said. “I enjoyed the winning and I enjoyed competing but there’s nothing like receiving those texts or being out and seeing one of those kids who I haven’t seen in a few years.”
“I…
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