Some people are passionate about music, while others may be passionate about art or cooking. Regardless of who you are or what your personality is, there is no denying the fact that each individual is passionate about something in particular.
For Ouachita’s head baseball coach Kyle Hope, coaching baseball is his passion, and it has been something he knew he wanted to do even at a young age. Baseball wasn’t the only sport he played growing up; he competed in as many sports as possible as a youth before going strictly baseball.
“I played all sports growing up, and baseball was the one I kind of gravitated to more than the others. It was mainly football, basketball and baseball for me growing up. I played soccer for only one year because soccer wasn’t as popular when I was growing up,” Hope said.
Following high school, Hope went on to play baseball at the collegiate level.
“I had an opportunity to play junior college ball after I graduated from high school, and I went on to play at the University of North Texas,” Hope said.
Now entering his 35th year in coaching, Hope said that he began and spent the majority of his coaching years at the high school level before transitioning to college.
Following graduation from North Texas, Hope initially found himself coaching two sports at Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas, neither of which were baseball.
“When I first got into coaching, really it was a football and basketball coaching job while also teaching English. I also did volunteer work for the baseball program, and it eventually led to me getting my first high school baseball job,” Hope said.
Hope said that he was uncertain which sport he would end up coaching for good, because he had love for all three sports: football, basketball and baseball.
“As a young coach, I didn’t know if I was going to go the football track, the basketball track or the baseball track because I loved all three and enjoyed them all, but baseball just seemed to be the one that the opportunity arose first to become a head coach, and from there I just kind of made my way through the baseball ranks,” Hope said.
One may often think that coaches follow a relative’s footsteps that lead them to coaching as well, whether an aunt’s or uncle’s, a parent’s, a grandparent’s or even a cousin’s. The Harbaugh brothers, the Shanahan’s (where Kyle followed his father Mike’s footsteps in coaching) and the Ryan brothers (Rex and Rob) are all examples of this familial coaching path.
or Coach Hope, however, coaching wasn’t something traditional in his family, and he had to take initiative to break the pattern.
“Coaching was not a family thing. Just growing up, people that influenced me were teachers and coaches that I saw and liked. …I have loved being able…to be around and [be] an influence to young men just like other coaches were with me at some point while growing up,” Hope said.
Coaching is one of those fields where, to get your foot in the door, it’s often the case that “it’s not what you know, but who you know,” as the saying goes. There are many coaches constantly communicating with each other, regardless of what school they are at, and they are always looking to get upcoming coaches on the right track. Coach Hope noted that his path to Ouachita was along those same lines.
“It is funny how the coaching circle works. The people that you meet in coaching leads to networking. Sometimes that definitely helps, and sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know in this profession. So there [were] always people that I knew growing up that had an affiliation with Ouachita; people that I coached with that had an affiliation with Ouachita, and I always kept in touch here. I had known Coach Sharp for a long time, where I had initially met him across the street at Henderson in the ‘90s,” Hope said.
While Hope had many connections to Ouachita, he noted that patience was key during the process to eventually becoming head baseball coach.
“Any young coach or any young person has dreams, goals and aspirations, and sometimes those things are answered, and sometimes they are not answered in the timeframe that you want them to be, but God’s timing is perfect, so it worked out well for me, and there was a reason why I was teaching and coaching high school maybe longer than what I personally wanted to,” Hope said. “I wanted to go into college a lot sooner than what I did, but God had a plan for me, and that plan was for me to be at the high school level. Then, he eventually opened that door for me to get into college.”
Hope is now in his second season as head coach of Ouachita’s baseball team. Previously, he worked four years as an assistant baseball coach, serving as the Tiger pitching coach, recruiting coordinator and camp director. He looks forward to this season with his young team.
Written by sports writer: Marcellus Hill
