North Port High tabs 'Kemo' O'Sullivan as its new baseball coach

NORTH PORT — North Port director of athletics Tony Miller walked Kevin “Kemo” O’Sullivan to the Bobcats baseball field during his interview process during the first week of July. The two sat in the visitors dugout as O’Sullivan recited details from the last time he was there.

As the coach of visiting Countryside High, O’Sullivan’s Cougars dropped a 4-3 district quarterfinal game April 27, 2010, at North Port.

“We were up by one and we ended up losing on a walk-off,” O’Sullivan said. “Some things stick more than others. It was early in my coaching career and it was probably one of the better games the kids came together and competed.”

“He knew the date, pretty much what happened, who was on base,” Miller said. “It was kinda cool, just watching him smile looking over the field.”

When O’Sullivan returns to the Bobcats’ field in the spring, it will be in the home dugout.

Miller announced North Port hired O’Sullivan as its new baseball coach.

“We liked the experience he had and his knowledge of the game,” Miller said.

O’Sullivan takes pride in the fact the year after North Port ended Countryside’s 2010 season at 5-20, the Cougars went 20-9 the following season. Countryside beat North Port, 16-11, and Riverview, 3-1, before losing to Sarasota, 8-2, in the 2011 playoffs.

No relation to the University of Florida baseball coach by the same name, O’Sullivan went 131-109, including 105-55 during his final six years, at Countryside before being let go in 2016. His final game was a 5-3 loss to Lakewood Ranch High in the Class 8A-Region 3 quarterfinal ending a 19-8 campaign.

He sent 21 players to college while with the Cougars. Prior he was a pitching coach at Dunedin High.

“At North Port, I saw a similar body of work as when I was at Countryside,” said O’Sullivan, who took over at Countryside for Darnell Coles, now the hitting coach for the Washington Nationals. “The key to a coach and the challenge to a coach is developing players. I was proud of my work at Countryside. I’ve got a challenge ahead of me.”

“It seems like his strong point is his ability to develop players,” Miller said. “That’s always good. He’s really analytical, a numbers guy. He checked a lot of the boxes.”

The 52-year-young O’Sullivan had a memorable playing career, too. He was a player on the Sarasota National Little League team that reached the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He went on to pitch for Triton College (River Grove, Illinois) in the Junior College World Series.

Recently, O’Sullivan has been a physical education teacher and assisted with the baseball team at Bayshore High.

His first order of business at North Port is building a coaching staff. Not far behind is moving from Bradenton to the North Port area.

“I’m excited because it brings a new outlook to the game for us and just a new mentality,” Miller said. “This is something that’s going to be a positive for our program.”

A Cardinal Mooney Catholic High grad, O’Sullivan will teach math at North Port.

“I am a baseball nut, a numbers’ guy,” O’Sullivan said. “I love the game.”

Dennis Maffezzoli is the deputy sports editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and chief reporter for Sarasota Herald-Tribune and HTpreps covering Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties. Support local journalism by subscribing. 

Follow @maffsports on Twitter

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: North Port High tabs 'Kemo' O'Sullivan as its new baseball coach