Krejci helps baseball grow in city schools

Bill Krejci did a lot to grow the sport of baseball when he was in Creston as Southwestern Community College’s baseball coach and athletic director.

He often conducted instructional clinics for youth coaches, as well as donating his time for one-one-one fundamental sessions with kids looking to improve as players.

In the past 15 years, he took his passion for the sport to a national stage, as a coach and administrator for USA Baseball’s age group teams. He has coached 28 current or former major league players, including the likes of Joe Mauer, Manny Machado, Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman.

Now 68 years old and living in Ankeny with wife Teresa, chief financial officer at Drake University, Krejci is traveling the country in a new program designed to ignite interest in the sport in city schools.

Krejci is the lead instructor for elementary school teachers in the Fun At Bat program.

With a curriculum guided by SHAPE America, and Franklin Sports providing the plastic bats and balls and other equipment kids can use in their physical education classes, Major League Baseball and USA Baseball have partnered to garner more exposure of the sport at the grassroots level.

The program is introduced to teachers in major league cities, usually at the major league stadium.

“We have already been in New York, Seattle, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.,” Krejci said recently in Adel where he watched two of his former SWCC players — Creston coach Steve Birchard and ADM coach Jason Book. “I’ll be in Tampa and Miami in August. I teach the elementary PE teachers how to field, how to hit and everything, and then we have them do activities that day. We do it right before a game and they get to go to the game and everything.”

Krejci said Major League Baseball recognized that the sport was lagging in interest in the inner cities, where organized leagues and instructional academies aren’t as available to youths as other parts of the country.

“You take a kid in West Des Moines, and he might be playing in a local league, on a travel team of some kind, and maybe his parents got him in an instructional academy,” Krejci said. “But what if you can’t afford to be a part of a little league organization?”

The program is reaching thousands of kids who may not have ever played baseball before. The pilot phase of Fun At Bat reached 490 schools and more than 300,000 kids this year. The hope is to reach over a million kids by the end of 2018, in all corners of the country. Coordinator Tyler Collins hopes it creates a new ripple of interest in the nation’s original pastime.

The Curriculum is designed for two age groups — grades K-2 and 3-5.

“A lot of these kids may have never been exposed to baseball,” Krejci said. “In D.C. we had 85 to 90 teachers. About 60 percent were African-American teachers and 40 percent were women. A couple of them said to me afterward, ‘You know, coach, if I had known this stuff as a youth, I might have been a baseball player!’ They can’t get it if they can’t afford it. Well, everybody goes to school.”

The curriculum incorporates an emphasis on character development, teamwork and sportsmanship in addition to the skills of hitting, fielding and throwing. The program has been engineered to operate in gymnasiums, open playgrounds, blacktops and ball fields.

“The school district contracts with us and they get a big bag of Franklin gear,” Krejci said. “We give them tees, balls, bats and bases. They love this stuff. The reception has been fantastic so far.”

Sam Bernabe, president and general manager of the Iowa Cubs, is a former player of Krejci’s at Southwestern. That connection is providing an opportunity for Fun At Bat to be brought to Des Moines teachers in an upcoming training session.

“I told my boss that we had a connection with the Iowa Cubs, so we’re going to do a program with teachers at Principal Park,” Krejci said. “Just like in the other visits, the team will give out gear to the teacher and let them go to the games.”

While doing this program, Krejci is still involved with age-group team development. He leaves Friday for a two-week selection and training session for this year’s USA Baseball 12-and-under team.

“We’re bringing 100 kids into California and will pick 36 kids in the first phase,” Krejci said. “Out of that, we’ll select 18 kids to work with for another week. Hopefully, we’ll end up with some of the best 12U kids in the nation.”

The team will train in Houston Aug. 17-22 before competing in Mexico in the Pan Am Games Aug. 23 through Sept. 3.

Why stay so busy wandering the nation with so many responsibilities at this stage of his career? Krejci said it’s an easy answer.

“I owe USA Baseball a lot,” said Krejci, who first got involved in team selection activities while working at Southwestern. “They allowed me to go all over the world coaching guys who became big leaguers. So, when they call, I say yes!”