Video: Hingham Coach Says Goodbye to HS Baseball Team

As the Baseball season came to an end Monday, Coach Bob Rodgers gave a final farewell to his players and their parents.

After three years of coaching Rodgers will leave to fulfill the role of Athletic Director for Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, where he also teaches Media and coaches basketball.

“It’s disappointing losing him,” said Hingham High School Athletic Director .  “He made an immediate impact.”

In Rodger’s three seasons as the head coach of the Harbormen, he led Hingham to a 45-15 overall record and won two Patriot League Championships (2009 and 2011), including one this past year when Hingham went 15-5 before on Monday in the State Tournament.           

“The best decision I ever made was three years ago when I came over to talk with Margaret Conaty about the open job,” Rodgers said.  “I’m glad she had the faith in me to give me the opportunity to coach these guys.  We didn’t have the success we would have liked in the post season but we did win two league championships. I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids.  They were just a tight knit group all year and the character just doesn’t’ get any better.”

In Rodger’s time as head coach, he didn’t just win on the field but he every season to build team camaraderie.

“He provided a great opportunity for his players both athletically and socially,” Conaty said. “He just covered all bases.”           

Every year, unlike other Athletic teams at Hingham High School, Rodger’s baseball team got the opportunity to escape the Patriot League and compete against Florida high schools during the April school break.

“I’ve been traveling with our teams for years,” Rodgers explained to Patch earlier in the season. “It’s something I really believe in. It’s a great opportunity for the team to come together to build team unity and to get the guys to appreciate each other off the field. I think it really translates on the field.”

For Rodgers, baseball and sports has always been his passion.  It wasn’t too long ago that his players were watching him on T.V. when he was a sports broadcaster and producer on NESN for the Boston Red Sox.

As a kid growing up in Pembroke, Rodgers always dreamed of broadcasting sports.  His dream came true in 1987, when he joined NESN as an associate producer. He became an on-camera personality in June 1993, co-hosting the networks sport-wrap-up program, SportsDesk.  In 1996 he became the host of the Boston Red Sox pre- and postgame shows.  In addition to hosting NESN programs, Rodgers was also the play-by-play announcer for NESN's coverage of the Pawtucket Red Sox and was the network's play-by-play announcer for the final six weeks of the 2000 Boston Red Sox season.

In March 2004, just after just signing a new two-year contract,Rodgers was let go by NESN after he left Red Sox spring training to coach Whitman-Hanson Regional High School boys' basketball team in the state tournament.

“It was a stunning moment,” Rodgers said. “I really didn’t think NESN would react the way that they did. I didn’t think they would throw me away, they had just signed me to a new contract.”

Shortly after NESN bought Rodgers out of his contract, he received offers for other broadcasting jobs, but turned them down to coach and teach at Whitman-Hanson.

“As I started coaching at such as young age, I started to realize the value in what you can do for other people,” Rodgers said. “I think some people are born to be teachers and coaches and I found out when I started coaching that it was something I was meant to do. When I got the opportunity to be a coach and a teacher, I realized that there is nothing that ever happen for me in broadcasting, whether it was winning an Emmy or calling a Red Sox game- as exciting as all these things were… I never got the same satisfaction as helping a kid through any kind of crisis.”

Rodgers, now a Hanson resident,  is excited to become the Athletic Director for Whitman-Hanson but also said he will miss Hingham and expects the baseball team to be successful for the next three years. 

Hingham High School has not yet announced a replacement for Rodgers and said they will hire a coach during the Fall of next school year.

“He’ll be missed for sure,” said Conaty. “We wish him the best.”