Bonding Through Baseball: Pit Spitters coaches turn strong bonds on and off the field into wins

Jun. 15—Editor's note: This article was published in the Record-Eagle's "2023 Pit Spitters" special section. Click or tap here to read the section in its entirety online.

TRAVERSE CITY — The smoke alarms started going off inside Turtle Creek Stadium during a game day last year.

No worries, just a little coach bonding.

Traverse City Pit Spitters assistant coaches Todd Reid and Casey Wila hit the Boardman River for some early-morning trout fishing. They returned to the stadium, filleted the fish on a truck tailgate and tried to cook up breakfast in one of the suites. But they ended up cooking their eggs and fish a bit too much on the small electric grill and set off smoke detectors.

The cast-iron skillet incident just goes to show how well the unusually long-tenured Northwoods League coaching staff gets along.

All they needed was to open the window. No harm, no foul.

No fish, either.

Reid has been in Traverse City from the Spitters' start, now in his fifth year as bench coach. Wila is in his third year, counting one season leading the Great Lakes Resorters during the pandemic-altered 2021 campaign in which three teams played games in Traverse City.

They're joined by manager Josh Rebandt, also in his fifth year. The 13 seasons of NWL experience with the same franchise stands out in the 24-team league.

"There's a lot of turnover in the Northwoods League, in particular among assistant coaches," Reid said. "It's a lot of younger guys looking to coach higher-level guys and get some more experience."

At the team's media day, Rebandt stopped and whipped out his phone to take pictures of Wila being interviewed while the wind whipped around Turtle Creek Stadium turned his hair into a makeshift mohawk.

Pit Spitters infielder Glenn Miller, a Pentwater native, played under Wila at Eastern Michigan University last season.

"They're just so positive all the time," Miller said. "They're so quick to pick you up, and they're just really good people."

Miller said the Pit Spitters' staff goes above and beyond normal coaching duties.

"One of the biggest things with coaches is it's so easy to just coach the player. It's almost robotic sometimes. But here, they love you as a person," Miller said. "That helps you gain trust and respect; and then from there, they're just really good coaches. When you add those two things together, that's when success comes out on the field."

Miller, 21, played on a temp contract with the Green Bay Rockers last summer before catching on with the Spitters and returning this year.

Wila's connections to Traverse City go deeper than coaching the Resorters in 2021 and acting as the Spitters' hitting coach last year.

He was born in Traverse City and lived here for his first two years before his parents moved. His younger brother Cal works at Hagerty Insurance.

"It's kind of all come full circle," Wila said.

Ben Gloe, a 2022 Aquinas College grad and the Spitters' ticket sales consultant, was one of Wila's first players he had for four years at Aquinas. Wila also coached Gloe's older brother for three years and played alongside him with the Manistee Saints for a season.

But one thing that keeps Wila and Reid coming back is Rebandt and the Pit Spitters' front office.

"A lot of it has to do with Reebs," Wila said. "He's a great leader and leads by example. He's someone you can work with and be yourself. That just lends to a good environment where the players can be themselves as well. That's why they perform so well when they're out there."

The coaches frequently have meals together, go on bike rides, work out at the YMCA, and even help run a voluntary Sunday morning chapel for players when the team's travel schedule allows.

They all say sharing similar traits in personality, philosophy, morals and ethics helps them not only get along but be able to take criticism.

The roles of Rebandt and Reid used to be reversed.

Reid was the manager at Olivet Nazarene in 2011, and Rebandt the pitching coach there.

"I'm fortunate because Todd is a mentor of mine," Rebandt said. "To have a guy in the dugout with twice or more experience than I do is phenomenal."

Reid, 51, now teaches full-time at Olivet Nazarene instead of coaching, which opened up his summers just in time for the Pit Spitters to start up in Traverse City.

"He may have known I took the job before my wife did," Reid said, almost as a question.

They won the 2016 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference title together, with Rebandt then landing a job at Davenport University.

Now, Rebandt is the manager and Reid his bench coach who also oversees the defense.

"I have the easy job," Reid said. "I just sit there and say, 'Well, you messed up there.'"

Rebandt says Reid passes on a ton of information during games — some of which he acts upon, and some not — but doesn't take things personally.

"I'm the most fortunate coach in summer league baseball to have that," Rebandt said.

The Spitters work perfectly into Reid's schedule now that he's a full-time teacher with summers off. His wife is the athletic director at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois.

"I'm from south of Chicago," Reid said. "It's the same lake, but it doesn't look like the same lake. We definitely enjoy the area and Traverse City."

Which brings us to another coaching hijinks story.

Wila and Reid went kayaking one morning. Reid's the more experienced on the water, so he soon was well ahead of Wila on the Boardman.

"He's kind of an adrenaline junkie," Wila said. "As soon as we get in the water, he takes off."

However, his kayak got caught on a stump and Reid ended up hanging from a limb over the water with the kayak floating downstream.

Then Wila comes floating by the predicament.

"The look on his face," Reid said, smiling. "He thought I was going to die."

Everything turned out fine, of course.

Much like the Spitters success on the field.

Though their first five years, Rebandt and Reid have produced a 172-74 record for a .699 winning percentage, plus two Northwoods League championships. They also made the playoffs in each of their four seasons. Rebandt was named the 2019 Northwoods League Field Manager of the Year as the team ran up an 18-game win streak.

While Reid didn't have any previous college summer league coaching experience — his summers were dominated by camps and recruiting at Olivet Nazarene — Rebandt had previously coached with the Niagara Power, a team sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the time.

Rebandt's in-laws live in Gaylord, and his parents also recently moved there. Plus, he has extended family in Petoskey and Ellsworth.

The Spitters also have numerous third-year players, another uncommon Northwoods League trait. Colin Summerhill, Camden Traficante, Joe Hrozko and Anthony Ramirez are among the players to return to Traverse City multiple times, often citing the coaching staff as a big reason why. This year's team has numerous three-year players join a list that includes Mario Camilletti, Christian Faust, Tito Flores and others.

The trio of coaches, who are joined by former Michigan State University pitcher Brian Martin as a first-year pitching coach, also say they're on the same page on player development.

"When we send them back to their program in the fall, they're a better player," Wila said.

Wila said the coaching staff also takes notice of the investment from ownership, saying that knowing they care about the product on the field plays a role in that stability as well.

"I'm a big believer in building relationships with players and getting to know guys developing them," Rebandt said. "Casey checks off those boxes. He's a perfect fit."

"Josh vets his coaches just like his players," said Reid, the winningest coach at both Eastern Nazarene and Olivet Nazarene.

Reid has 23 years of coaching experience at the college level, D3 and NAIA. But summer ball is a different animal.

With 72 games in 76 days — plus the league's All-Star Game that the Pit Spitters are hosting this year — the coaches said it lends itself to building relationships quicker because of spending more time together. That goes for the coaches and players.

College teams practice 4-5 times a week in between games, whereas the NWL is more like maybe two — and even those are more abbreviated.

Reid, who handles the defense among his responsibilities, uses batting practice differently than many coaches and has his defenders fielding every ball that comes off a bat to get live reads. There's even a point system for the outfielders to add some competition to BP.

"There's nothing like a live read off the bat," Reid said. "Fungos are a different thing altogether."

Rebandt and Reid understand that younger assistants will come and go, but they hope to prepare them for the future as much as their players. They also like the current situation in Traverse City enough that neither has gone elsewhere.

"We kidded about doing it for 29 more years after the first year," Reid said. "I would in a heartbeat."

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