For Baseball Head Coach Wade Walter, baseball has always been more than a game. Starting at eight years old, he found himself captivated by the sport, and developed a passion that would persist through his entire life.
“My parents just threw me in there in tee ball,” Wade Walter said. “[My father] couldn’t play baseball [because] he was too busy farming. He didn’t have baseball where he grew up, [a] small town [in] Minnesota. There’s just something about it [baseball] that grabs your spirit.”
As Wade Walter’s love for the sport grew, he only worked harder. After high school, he was able to play Division I baseball at Belmont University, and after that, he played independent professional baseball. Wade Walter eventually found himself as a father and high school baseball coach, continuing to interact with the sport daily.
“My love for it now is different as a coach than it was as a player, but it’s still a great feeling to be on the field and be a part of it,” Wade Walter said. “Watching kids go through the process of improvement makes me respect how difficult the game is. You’re never going to be automatically good at baseball just because you’re strong or tall or fast;you have to develop those skills and apply them to the game. It gives all different kinds of kids a chance to be good at a sport.”
In the early stages of his son Cooper Walter’s (9) life, Wade Walter was sure to introduce him to baseball. After trying soccer, basketball and golf, Cooper, like his father, decided that baseball was the best for him.
“I started [playing baseball] around like six or seven,” Cooper Walter said. “I learned from my dad, Coach Walter. I was grateful [and]lucky to be able to learn from a guy that played at a very high level.”
Cooper Walter is now entering his first season playing for his father’s team. Being both the parent and the coach, Wade Walter presents Cooper Walter with unique difficulties.
“It’s definitely a balancing act because he’s a young man, and I’m a man,” Wade Walter said. “As a dad, you see your son, and you want him to be really successful, but it’s hard to be a coach and a dad at the same time. I think the hard part is holding on too tight. You have to let him be his own man and make his own mistakes, and not hold onto those mistakes with him.”
Through a combination of practice and proper coaching, Cooper Walter has developed into one of the most skilled players on the team despite his young age. However, being the coach’s son doesn’t mean life is easy.
“[Having his father coach him] is kind of cool because I can see him every single day — it gets kind of annoying,” Cooper Walter said. “It’s fun, but it’s not what other people think. He goes a little harder on you obviously because I’m his son.”.
Coaching and parenting are different responsibilities with their respective challenges, but there are certain principles Wade Walter is able to use while doing both. As a father of twins, a lifetime wellness teacher and a coach, he interacts with many children who have separate challenges every day.
“I try to meet kids where they are,” Wade Walter said. “Some kids, character-wise, are ahead of other kids. … If they’re lacking in certain areas of their life, that’s where I try to meet them. If not, I just go to the next kid. They’re all going to have their challenges and their problems.”
At his young age, Cooper Walter still has a journey to go and new skills to develop, but his coach and father will be there to guide him through it all. However, the passion seems to run in the genes.
“I’m good at it, I love being competitive all the time, I love competing against these guys,” Cooper Walter said. “It’s such a great area to be around. I [100 percent] want to play in college and [at a professional level].”
