A Father’s Baseball Flashback
When Rick Stoulil looks at his U14 All-Star Eagles team this summer, he can’t help but think of a team he coached a few years ago.
Stoulil, who had the Annual Austin All-Stars Youth International Baseball Tournament dedicated to him this past weekend, coached the 2009 Austin All-Stars 14U team to a state title, and now he has another 14U team that could repeat that feat this summer.
The 2009 team included Stoulil’s oldest son, Marcus Stouil, and this year’s team includes his other son, Jason Stoulil.
Jason wasn’t able to watch the 2009 team win a state title, because he was busy helping Austn’s U12 team win its own state title on the same day, but now he’d like the 2012 14 U team to match the accomplishments of the one that his older brother played on.
“We’ve always been trying hard to be as good as that other team,” Jason said. “I think we’re getting up there as we get older and it’s fun to have something to look up to.”
Jason enjoys playing on a winning team with his dad, and he couldn’t ask for a much better coach to work with.
“It’s so much fun to have my dad in the dugout,” Jason said. “Sometimes when he yells at me it’s kind of iffy, but it’s fun to play with him and I’m doing the same thing as my brother.”
That ‘other team’ will be seniors in high school this coming fall and Rick has enjoyed watching the players progress as they’ve moved up the ranks. Marcus hit .448 for the Packers last spring and Gabe Kasak, who was also on the 2009 title team, hit .378.
“I enjoy watching them and sometimes I’d like to be out there coaching a bit,” Rick said. “Every once in a while they hear some comments from me and they know who it is when I yell. They’re all good baseball players and they’re fundementally sound. It’s a joy to watch them progress in their careers.”
Tommy Olmsted was one of the four players from the U14 title team that was present at Stoulil’s award ceremony on Friday at the International Tournament. He said Rick did a great job preparing the team to prepare playing at the next level.
“He was so knowledgeable and he always knew what he was talking about,” Olmsted said. “He understood if we made mistakes and he always pushed us to get better. He was really influential in my baseball career.”
Rick moved to Austin in 2000 when Marcus was just seven years old and he had Marcus try out for the U12 team as a 10-year old. Marcus made that team, along with Kasak, and the two have been competing together ever since.
Rick, who previously lived in Sioux City, Iowa, helped out on Marcus’s U12 and U13 teams and he eventually became a head coach with the U14s.
“I kind of heard Austin had good baseball and I was happy about that,” Rick said. “The All-Stars are a great organization and they’ve gotten bigger every year. It’s become a big thing in Austin and I believe it will help tremendously in the long run at the high school level.”
This summer, the U14 team won a wood bat tournament in Mahotomedi, it took second in a Woodbury tournament and it took eighth out of 36 teams at at tournament in Omaha.