Coaching legends guide St. Francis
Sykes, O’Connell bring stability
There might not be another dugout in the country with as many coaching victories in it as the one St. Francis sits in.The Mariners’ new head coach, Dick Sykes, and his assistant, Tom O’Connell, have combined to win over 1,000 games.
Some heads were turned, however, when others found out two guys already in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame were running a program that hasn’t won a conference championship since the late 1970s.
“The first question was, why would you want to be at St. Francis?” the 63-year-old Sykes said. “And Tom and I both agreed, it’s no longer about the wins. I told coaches, ‘how many wins do I need? How many wins does Coach O’Connell need?’
What they need in St. Francis is stability. … What could we do here to change the climate and culture of baseball at St. Francis?”
Senior pitcher and first baseman Mike Hartmann was a freshman on varsity when the Mariners finished with an 0-22 record in 2014.
“We were never taken seriously and we were written off as an easy win,” he said.
The following season, Jared Kwiatkowski became the head coach and led St. Francis to a 14-13 record. Last year, O’Connell joined the staff as an assistant around the same time Sykes was looking to return to coaching after a short break and applied to run St. Francis’ freshmen team.
However, Mariners athletic director Mike Lewandowski asked Sykes to be the other varsity assistant.
“I called him back and said I don’t know if I want to do that,” Sykes said. “He goes, ‘Tom O’Connell is the other assistant coach.’ And I said, ‘Then I’m on board.’ Tom’s probably one of the best, if not the best, in the state. He’s been doing it for almost 50 years.”
St. Francis was 19-8 last season, but Kwiatkowski left for a teaching job at Arrowhead, where he is the assistant baseball coach.
Sykes was asked to replace him, and he asked O’Connell to stay with him.
“He was an unpaid assistant last year, so I split my coaching money right in half,” Sykes said. “And I told him he’s the pitching coach, I’m the hitting coach, and we’ll do it together.”
The 73-year-old O’Connell ranks eighth in the state all-time among spring coaches with 509 wins (406 losses). He has been a head coach for 27 years at Milwaukee Pulaski and he resigned from Burlington Catholic Central in 2015 after winning five state championships in 15 years there.
“I wasn’t ready to give it up yet,” he said.
In 2012, Sykes gave it up after 23 seasons at Nicolet to spend more time with his family. He won the 1998 state championship and his 563 wins (230 losses) ranked fifth alltime among summer coaches.
But after watching his son compete in four sports and then graduate from West Allis Hale, he returned.
Senior pitcher and shortstop Keaton Rock is glad he did.
“We don’t really get a lot of people to come out for baseball here, but there’s definitely more kids this year than last year,” he said.
Changing that culture – and rebuilding the youth program – is what Sykes is trying to accomplish.
“It’s difficult to do that when you’ve lost so many years in a row,” Sykes said. “The culture of the school is such that they’re just accustomed to losing, and because of it, a lot of kids don’t even play ball. … That’s the biggest challenge. When I was at Nicolet, I didn’t have any problem getting kids to play because they’ve been playing their whole lives.”
St. Francis opens its season Tuesday against Heritage Christian at Greene Park. The Mariners have to replace Midwest Classic Conference player of the year Jake Wiedower, as well as their top-two pitchers.
Top returners include Hartmann, who batted .435 with 29 runs batted in last year, and senior Kyle Brickner (.380).
But no matter who graduated or who is back, or the name of the school or age of the coaches, O’Connell still relates to the players.
“I’ve always said kids haven’t changed,” he said. “Stuff around them has changed. But kids are kids. I don’t have a difficulty relating to kids. I never have. You just have to be honest with kids, and if you’re honest with kids, they’ll be honest with you. That’s how I see it.”