Natick Resident Up For Coaching Accolade

Lincoln-Sudbury baseball coach and Natick resident Kirk Fredericks has seen it all in his 10-year tenure leading the Warriors.

Since taking over the L-S program in 2002, Fredericks has won three state championships, including one this past season in which the Warriors tallied a 24-4 mark to capture the Division 1 crown.

Recently, Fredericks was deemed among the country's best when he was named one of eight 2011 BCA National High School Regional Coaches of the Year by the National High School Baseball Coaches Association.

"I was sitting on the Cape, just gotten back from the beach, took the kids back for a nap, and I started looking through emails," Fredericks explains in how he found out about the award. "I was kind of shocked."

By being named a regional coach of the year, Fredericks became a finalist for National Coach of the Year, which will announced at the Hall of Fame/Awards dinner in Raleigh, N.C., on Dec. 2.

Fredericks said as he sat and looked at the email, memories from the past decade came flooding in, from the day he took over the program from Bob Poulin, to the final out of the 2011 championship run.

"It makes me reflect back on my 10 years at L-S," he said. "I came into this program in 2002 where the foundation was created by Coach Poulin. We had home and away uniforms, indoor batting cages, a lot of things to help kids improve. Things I didn’t have to create. Gets me back to those things, how the foundation was established.

"I look back to the first year when shortstop Brian Mahoney shows up to practice in an extra small pink jacket, in 2004 when I brought in a lefty pitcher in North Section final, a lefty who (hadn’t pitched much); he throws one pitch, a line drive is hit to the shortstop for a triple play. This year with Keith Anderson making snag on line drive, Matt McGavick pitching five innings, and so forth and so on, reliving it again. There's a snapshot of each of those years."

Fredericks said he is proud of what his program has been able to accomplish under his tuteledge, including five North Sectional titles and 202 victories, to go along with the trifect of state crowns.

But in the end, there's something more important to the humble coach.

"My thing is I want to continue coaching in Sudbury as long as kids and parents want to continue to get better," Fredericks said. "I grew up in Braintree, I played in three American Legion state finals, a Legion World Series, college world series (Division II) ... if I can get kids to play in college, add to their different experiences, anything I can do, as long as they are willing to work at it, that’s kind of what I look forward to."