Hoel Happy to be Hornets Baseball Coach Once Again

Paul Hoel stepped down from coaching Hinsdale South’s baseball team following the 2005 season to spend more time with his children. But he always said he wanted to get back into coaching high school ball at some point. 

Well, late in the Hornets’ 2011 season, the job he once held suddenly became available when Hinsdale South coach Kraig Conyer resigned. Hoel became interim coach, and took over the head coaching reigns after the season ended.

Hoel couldn’t be happier to be back for a second go-round with the Hornets, who completed their summer league season earlier this week.

“I knew I was going to get involved again, and I was hoping it would be at Hinsdale South,” said Hoel, who is the school’s physical education department chairman. “I was just fortunate enough to get the job that I wanted twice, so I’m very lucky with that.”

Hoel didn’t give up coaching cold turkey when he left six years ago. In 2008, Hoel started coaching his son, Brian, who was on the Elmhurst Stars travel team.

Brian is going to be a sophomore at York Community High School and continues to play for the Stars 15U team. Meanwhile, Hoel’s daughter, Kailey, is a part of the Elmhurst Cougars’ 12U travel softball team, coached by his wife, Lauren.

“It was awesome. It was the best six years,” Hoel said. “It was great, because it helped me in a couple of ways: As a coach, you really focus on fundamentals and teaching kids. My organizational skills became much better, because when they’re young—nine, 10 or 11 years old—you’re really communicating with the parents.

“I think that helped me as a high school coach. It was also great time bonding. It’s time you can’t get back. Me, my son and my daughter are just so close as a result of sports. Had I been coaching high school sports during that whole time, I’m sure we’d be close, but not to the extent that we are now.”

Even though Hoel wasn’t coaching the Hornets during those years, he remained involved with his coaching brethren as the West Suburban Conference’s resource athletic director for baseball. Hoel’s primary responsibility in that role was formulating the conference game schedule. He left this position once he became the Hornets’ head coach.

“I was sort of like the commissioner, so you get to do the scheduling,” he said. “I did that because I wanted to stay involved with the guys. This is even better now that I’m able to get back into coaching again because you see all your old friends, and the competitive edge is great. I’m sure a couple of them were shocked that I got back in, but I think they knew how much I liked baseball.”

When Hoel first became the Hornets’ coach in 1994, he was one of the youngest coaches in the conference. Now he’s one of the veterans.

“(In 1994) I was with guys like Jack Kaiser (Oak Park-River Forest), Terry Sullivan (Lyons Township), Paul Franzon (Downers North) and Gary Sulasky (Hinsdale Central),” Hoel said. “Now there’s another group of young guys that are in there, [such as] Justin Cronin (of Hinsdale Central), so it’s neat to meet new people and make connections.”

Hoel said he’s had time to reflect on any mistakes he made during his first stint as coach, and believes he’ll be an even better coach the second time around with the Hornets.

“I know I’ll be nicer to umpires this time through,” he said, laughing. “It’s like anything else. You get older, you mellow a little bit and you understand it more.

“With the amount of games that I’ve seen, you realize nobody is trying to make a mistake. And the same thing holds true with kids. I don’t know any kid that’s trying to boot a ground ball or take a strike three, so I think I’m just more patient and I understand it. I want to be teaching and being positive and instructing the kids. When you’re younger, you sometimes maybe push when you don’t need to.”

But a calmer, gentler Paul Hoel still wants his teams to compete at a high level. And the Hornets—both the spring and summer editions—have been doing just that. This past spring, Hinsdale South compiled a winning record both overall (18-17) and in the West Suburban Gold (13-5, second place). Despite a 3-0 loss to Neuqua Valley in summer league regional play on Tuesday, the Hornets finished 17-6.

The Hornets sport a strong senior class, headed up by catcher Emmanuel Morris, first baseman Mitch Duckhorn and third baseman/pitcher P.J. Schuster. Schuster is the team’s top returning pitcher, but Morris, who started pitching for the first time in summer league, will join him on the mound next spring. Kyle Nelson, another senior, also will figure into the rotation, and catch when Morris is pitching.

“We’ve got a great group of seniors,” Hoel said. “A real strong group that’s going to help us, and just great kids. They understand the game. The nicest thing is that they made my transition [back into coaching] so smooth. They’re positive and always listening and learning. It’s been great.

“We’ve got great team speed. We didn’t know if we’d have pitching depth, but we’ve had 11 different kids pitch for us this summer. They all did nice jobs so I’m feeling really good about our pitching and our defense and our team speed. The kids are wonderful.”

Sean Beesley, also a senior, was the team’s starting center fielder during the spring and became a pitcher over the summer too. Seniors Dan Foody (second base) and Justin Chappell (right field) also started for Hinsdale South in the spring season.

Hoel held meetings with each player this week after their summer season ended. Everyone is chomping at the bit for the 2012 spring season to begin.

“We talked about the time for improvement is now,” Hoel said. “They’re excited. You don’t want to wish your summer away because they played hard, but I think they’re excited about improving and getting better.”