Little League Coach Leaves Lifelong Impact on His Players

Scott Long

Little League has been huge for parents for years, as it occupied their children and allowed them to go out and play baseball for the first time, while also allowing them to make new friends. However, it meant a lot more to Bill Morrissey than it did to most parents, inspiring him to be a coach, which allowed his players to fall in love with the game and play even harder than many other kids.

Bill has been a baseball fan for as long as he can remember, and when his son Jack was born, he wanted to instill that same love for the game in him. It’s for that reason that Bill decided to sign his son up for Little League, while also signing up to be a coach himself for his son’s team. Bill never would have expected the involvement and enjoyment to have gone to the heights he eventually reached. “I was meant to be a Little League coach, but not forever,” said Bill.

One of the most important things about Little League was the idea that everyone gets their chance, and Bill understood that as well as anyone, making sure that every member of the Rockies from the Little League of the Islips got an opportunity to play in each and every game. To most sports coaches, winning is the most important thing, but that wasn’t the case for Bill. While he did want to win, he wanted to win the right way, and understood that Little League was filled with kids of all different talent levels, but they all deserve a chance to play. “First and foremost, he wanted every player to enjoy their time on his team,” said Jack Morrissey. That didn’t prevent him from winning as a coach though as his team was a perennial playoff team, and even finished in second place one year narrowly losing to the Cardinals in the AAA World Series.

Bill always gave it his all when coaching his players, making sure to dedicate time to everyone, even the kids who weren’t very good at baseball. “He was a very dedicated coach and absolutely loved what he did, and loved spending time with all of the kids,” said Robert Iadanza, an outfielder Bill coached on the Mariners. “In my time playing for him, it was easy to see that he cared about every kid on and off the field,” said Jack. But it wasn’t just his contribution as a coach that motivated his players, it was his investment in the games at home as well.

Not only did he take the time out of his day to spend his free time coaching kids, but he took the time once he got home, usually about an hour after each game, to write a summary of the games highlighting the final score, who played well, and who the Rockies would be playing in their next game. “When I came home after a game, I couldn’t wait to get started,” Bill said. After he would write the story, he would send out an email chain to the parents of every player on the team, so everyone could see what he said about them. “When I started writing the Little League game summaries, the chief purpose was to give each boy an opportunity to see their name mentioned (in the most positive light I could create),” Bill said.

What made this so genuine and unique was that he would find a way to positively incorporate every player into the summary even if they struck out in every plate appearance. Certain players had gone nearly the entire season without getting a hit, but he made sure to make the main aspect of the story about them when they did get that hit. One night, he painted a picture for the readers where the crowd was going crazy as one kid hit an infield single to spark a rally late in the game, giving him his first hit of the entire season. “There were many nights where I had to invent something positive to write about him, but not that night,” said Bill. Even though some of the pieces were embellished at times, it was all in good heart, as he just wanted to make these kids feel good and to put a smile on their face. “It was a means to show them the importance of their contribution to the team, however small it may have been,” Bill said.

This incorporation of the players who weren’t as good served as a confidence boost to them, while the compliments of everyone else just raised team morale, and made the team want to win the World Series for their coach. Once the last two seasons of Little League approached, the league reset and a draft was held, causing a change in the league. But, Bill stuck with his summaries even after this. In fact, they evolved at this point, involving previews to feature matchups with the teams of his former players, and the players he coached on the Long Island Mariners, a travel team he and a few of the other coaches in the league put together.

He still wrote his typical game summaries for his Rockies team, but now these previews were an added project. He wanted to show his Mariners players the same dedication he showed his Rockies players. Not to mention, this was fun for him, so this really wasn’t a project it was more so a hobby. It got to the point where parents and players could not wait for an upcoming matchup with the Rockies because they knew they’d be receiving a long chain email featuring a preview mentioning their names and what to watch for with them when they would face off. Since he knew most of these players very well from coaching them with the Mariners, he would provide a detailed scouting report on them, while also mentioning an interesting narrative, such as it being the first game against their old team, or a players first game in the cleanup spot.

R.J. Gonzalez a member of the Brewers in Little League, played for the Mariners under Morrissey over the summer and fall so he became close with him. “I’ll never forget reading his game analysis where he called me ‘a young phenomenon with a rocket arm and a rising career,” Gonzalez said. “The best part about that compliment? I wasn’t even on his team at the time,” Gonzalez added. Gonzalez was just one of many who received compliments like this, and he cherished it. “Sometimes I would just want to reach first base to get a high five and hear him say ‘what did you eat for breakfast today? We have to get the whole team eating that meal,”’ said Gonzalez. Very few coaches could inspire this type of excitement in his players, but that’s what Bill did on a regular basis.

He had a lasting impact on the kids he coached, and his enthusiasm is rare when looking at coaches of a child’s team. “I guarantee if he could go back, he wouldn’t change a thing,” said Iadanza. His confidence and inspiration in his players no matter how talented they were, helped boost everyone’s confidence, and made him a great role model for all of the players. He touched the hearts of many young players and had a lasting impact on many of their lives. “It’s the little things like that, that stick with us, and can make a Little league kid with big dreams feel like an MLB All Star,” Gonzalez said.

“He didn’t just have an eye for the game, but more importantly the heart for it,” said Gonzalez. Clearly, his impact on the lives of these young kids has been immense, serving as a role model to many of them. His love of the game instilled a similar love for many of the players that he coached, making their experience with the sport so much better.

Coaches like Bill are hard to come by, and his contributions haven’t gone unseen and the effect his coaching has had on these kids has lasted for years. These effects can be seen both on and off the field as his desire to brighten everyone’s day while also helping them improve at the game has built confidence and character in these young kids, which still lasts to this day.

“I do miss coaching; however, I also have come to learn that all good things come to an end, only to be replaced by new and different good things, said Bill. He cherished every moment as a coach and seemed to have just as much fun coaching as the kids did playing. “I would love to have a grandchild play Little League ball, and I would love to go and watch the game. I wouldn’t coach it. However, I might still write a game summary afterwards,” Bill said.