Success builder: A Q&A with Pellston softball coach Randy Bricker
Q: You're coming off a district title win in June. How big was that for the program and what you want to establish?
Bricker: To start off the season, our goal was to win the district championship. We knew we didn’t have the pieces to win the Ski Valley, and we had that one goal of the season to try to win the district championship, to try to set the program off on the right foot going forward, try to get the girls a taste of victory at the end of the season and build some confidence within the program, so it was big for us.
Q: Why did you decide to come back and be a varsity head coach?
Bricker: I decided to step down, obviously, from baseball to watch my daughter (Kaitlyn) play softball, and then in the process of doing that, I worked with (former Pellston softball coach and current Mackinaw City coach) Emma Cook a few years back, and we had a couple coaches come and go, and I finally decided that I needed to step up and help the program, and it was just time.
Q: You stepped down in 2012 after a successful tenure as Pellston's varsity baseball coach. Do you miss it?
Bricker: No, not necessarily. I miss the kids, but watching my daughters play has allowed me to not even think about it.
Q: How were you able to land that job in the first place?
Bricker: I was fresh out of high school and Jerry Charboneau was the head varsity coach, and I knew I wanted to stay around the program, and Jerry had asked me if I could just step aside for one year so I could get some separation from the incoming seniors, who I was obviously close with, and so I did that and I didn’t coach the spring of 1992, and in 1993 I came in and the JV baseball position was open, and I worked as a varsity assistant with Jerry – and I never looked back from there. I give a lot of credit to the start of my coaching career to Tom Litzner. Tom was our athletic director at Pellston, and he put some confidence in a 19–20-year-old guy to do the JV baseball program, and then I was only like 24-25 when he gave me the reins to the varsity program in 1998. I owe a lot of my career to Tom. He hired me and gave me the opportunity at Pellston.
Q: What was the program like when you took it over and what were your goals going into it?
Bricker: During our JV years, we had two programs so that was huge for a small school like Pellston. We had won the district championship in 1990, my junior year, and then we won it again with Spencer Budzik and his team in ‘94, and then we won it again in ‘97 with Jerome VanOrman, and his clan of Matt Spierling and those guys, and that senior class moved on and really left the program empty when I took over, to be honest with you. I remember that year vividly, it was 1998. We started seven freshmen on the varsity squad with no JV team. We had a senior leader who was probably one of the better ball players I coached in Don Schlappi, but he had seven freshmen as teammates so we didn’t do a whole lot of winning. I think our overall record was 4-21, our very first year with those group of kids, and obviously those freshmen ended up with a pretty good career at Pellston.
Q: You ended up having a ton of success as Pellston's baseball coach. Do you have a memory that sticks with you when you were coaching baseball?
Bricker: That graduating class in 2001, which was the first class I had for four full years – they won back-to-back regional championships. We went down to I believe Lake Leelanau St. Mary, in that area, and we had upset two Top 10 teams to win the regional championship, but the bigger moment was 2001, when we were down 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh, and Matt Zulski hit that walk-off grand slam to win the regional championship. That was by far the big, big moment in my coaching career.
Q: What was the most heartbreaking memory you had as a coach?
Bricker: Probably the loss in 2002 up in St. Ignace. We had a pretty good club. We won the (regional) championship, we had gone to the quarterfinals in 2000-2001, and we did it again in ‘03, and we got upset in 2002 by St. Ignace, so that was pretty heart wrenching for our kids. We may have been overlooking them, I don’t remember the details with it being that far back, but that was a big loss for our program.
Q: Who were some of the best players you coached?
Bricker: Going clear back to those days, Harley Mallory was an outstanding pitcher and hitter for us in the class of ‘01. That class ended up being loaded with seven freshmen. Harley Mallory and Matt Zulski and Colin Green. Those three kids in that grade. That class, with Brandon Crater out in centerfield, he just anchored us out there. Jake Lieber was our cleanup hitter. We had a freshman, Ricky Klungle, who ended up winning three regional championships at Pellston, three out of four years. He was our starting catcher every year. Two other players, both studs, were all-staters Nick Burkhart and Tim Babcock. We had some pretty good ball players. Zak Kruskie in 2012, Justin Litzner in 2008, Jason Zulski, and I’m sure I’m missing a boatload of kids. Harley (Mallory) was a dominant pitcher for us, and he threw in the low-80's.
Q: Your dad (Randy Bricker, Sr.) has been the football public address announcer at Pellston for decades. What makes him special when it comes to that position?
Bricker: Dad just has always loved the community of Pellston, he’s loved the kids, and he’s always had a special place for the Pellston High School football team. He absolutely loves it. Friday nights in the fall, it’s what he looks forward to. His voice is what this whole small community has heard since around 1970. If you’re a guy my age, you always remember him announcing. One of the calls from him – we’ve had some ball players over the years – but with Rocky Swiss and Johnny Swiss and Matt Spierling, they’re all from the Larks Lake area, and my dad always had one saying. When they’d come out and have a big run, he’d say, "The speedster from Larks Lake, Michigan!" and the kids just loved it.
Q: Speaking of family, you currently coach your daughter Megan on the softball team. How much more fun does that make it when you have a chance to do that?
Bricker: I coached Kaitlyn and Megan. I was an assistant for Kaitlyn and obviously now (a head coach) for Megan. We had an opportunity to coach them both in the same season, but COVID took that season away in 2020, but coaching Megan as a varsity head coach this year, it was a lot of fun. We were around each other at every practice and every game, and it’s different to watch your own child succeed on the diamond.
Q: You've watched both of your daughters compete in sports. Do you ever get nervous watching them when they are/were playing in bigger games?
Bricker: I try to fuel my kids with confidence, and of course you’re going to get nervous for them in a big situation, whether they’re serving for game point or they’ve got to take that pass and make that set to try to end the game, and Megan at the plate with two outs and the winning run is on, and you’re sitting back. You might be nervous, but you’re just watching and hoping they succeed.
Q: Who has been your biggest influence when it comes to coaching?
Bricker: I go back to Tom Litzner. He was my boss early in my career and now we’re friends. He was a big part of my coaching career, and I couldn’t continue without talking about Frank Zulski, his time and energy he put into the program, the knowledge he brought for our program. He’s somebody I’ve leaned on for the 15-plus years I coached (baseball). I think he was with us my whole entire varsity career. Frank was a big one, but there’s a lot of other varsity coaches in the area that you become friends with, whether it’s Ronny (VanSloten) in Rudyard, or Kevin Baller in Cheboygan, or Shawn (Racignol) in Petoskey, you get to be friends with these guys, and you never hesitate to call them and ask for advice, have inter-town scrimmages and things like that. I remember our staff meeting up with Shawn’s (Racnignol) staff one year just so I could pick their brains. We sat down at a Buffalo Wild Wings, our two staffs just talked baseball, and we were moving tables and setting up drills, and it was a really unique day for us. We took a lot in from their staff with Shawn and those guys.
Q: I know I mentioned best memory as a coach, but just as a Pellston fan/spectator, what's the greatest memory you've had in any sport?
Bricker: We hadn’t won a basketball district in like 36 years or something like that, but when we won that (boys basketball district) championship with Coach (Mark) Wagenschutz. It was 1994 with Jason Quant and Steve McCaffrey and Spencer Budzik and those guys – that was a big-time drought and a huge win for them. That was a memory because I knew those kids, I coached those kids in baseball, but when you go on a drought of 30-some years, that was huge to win. Obviously our first football playoff (win) with Coach (Jack) Carter, and then the many successes of our varsity volleyball program has had.
Q: When I started my job, Pellston was struggling badly in football. Now they're good, and so are many of the other sports. What do you think has been the biggest change in the athletic program that's allowed Pellston sports to become more successful?
Bricker: The football program to start with, I think you have to give a lot of credit to Jack Carter. Jack is a Pellston graduate, he takes a lot of pride in our program, and the kids love playing for Jack. He brings high energy to his practices and his games, and he’s just been tremendous for our program. Jack had been successful at the junior varsity level, and when he finally got to take over the varsity program, he’s been very good at it, and I give credit to Jack there. For me, the kids got to want to play for you. You’ve got to want to come to practice, you’ve got to have some energy when you get there, and that’s the same for our volleyball program, back through the days with Tim (McNitt) and Brooke (Groff). They just love the game, those kids did, and I think that is huge, is for the ability of the coach to get the kids there, want to be there and have fun, and it’s going to bring some high-energy practices and success on the playing field.
Q: I know you're a big Michigan football and Detroit Tigers fan. Who do you like more and why?
Bricker: Definitely Michigan football. It controls my falls, man. It drives my wife (Gennie) crazy. Back in 1997, they were playing Colorado and we had to delay our wedding by about 15 minutes so we could watch the end of the game. I was actually with the priest, and (Gennie’s) like, "What is going on?" We were out in the parking lot and whatnot, he comes in to get us and says, "Can we finish watching this real quick?" and I was like, "Heck yeah!" My father was a big Michigan fan growing up and he’s put that into us boys, and now I’ve got two daughters, and Kaitlyn, she’s just a crazy Michigan fan. We try to go to a couple of football games and basketball games a year, we follow them on all of our social media sites. We’ve always rooted for the Lions, we’ve always watched them on Sundays growing up, and Barry Sanders. I remember screaming my lungs out for Barry Sanders back in the (Pontiac) Silverdome, having thousands of people yelling, "Barry!"
Q: I had no idea you worked at the Pellston airport up until you told me about a month ago. What's it like having to juggle that job and the job of a coach?
Bricker: I’m kind of lucky because my shift at the airport is from 5:30 (a.m.) in the morning until (3 p.m.) in the afternoon, so I’m getting out of work at the same time as the kids are getting out of school. It’s actually not that extremely difficult for me to do because of my hours, but I really enjoy working at the airport and seeing all the people that fly up here in the summer months. It’s pretty amazing the people who come to visit this area that the community has no idea about.
Q: What's next for Pellston softball?
Bricker: So, we started last week, I brought in a pitching coach. Obviously losing Madison Brown, we have to establish ourselves on the mound. In high school softball, you’ve got to have a pitcher, so I brought in a pitching coach to work with some of our kids and set up some instructional times for those girls, and we really want to build a program with some young pitchers. We’ve got some goals for the diamond. We want to put in our own softball batting cage, along with a place to do for our little bullpen session, and do some improvements over there so the girls have a top-notch facility that they’re excited to come to during the season, but try to build it in the offseason. Going back to my baseball days, you can’t wait to start in March. You’ve got to get these girls rolling. Whether it’s pitching or extra (batting practice) once a week, you really want to get these girls going and to try and develop their game. We’re fine tuning it come March and April instead of teaching the basics, stuff like that.
Q: You've coached for so many years at Pellston. What's the one thing you've learned the most from coaching that you're able to apply in everyday life?
Bricker: It would be the fact that when you’ve coached as many kids as I’ve coached – I couldn’t even put a number on it – every kid is different and you have to treat them differently, maybe the way you coach them or talk to them to get the best out of them. You’ve got to have patience with kids, some kids you push harder than others, and I think that has allowed me to be a leader in the community as well. I’ve done quite a few things in our community, and I think the coaching side of it and what these kids have taught me about life and the different aspects that each person can bring to everyday life helps me treat others outside of baseball or softball at work, understanding that everybody’s different. You can’t approach everybody the same way.
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: A Q&A with Pellston varsity softball coach Randy Bricker
