Inside the Minds of WIFFLE Ball Coaches: A Niche Role in a Niche Sport

By Nick Schaefer

While watching a wiffleball game, the winning plays are quite visible to the naked eye. You see a big hit - perhaps one that lands over the fence - or a high leverage strikeout. If not seen, these moments can often be heard by a loud howling “Let’s Go!!” But some factors that help determine the outcome, like coaching decisions, go unnoticed.

Wiffleball managers wear many hats, including their abundance of coaching duties on top of stepping on the field and playing. Most wiffleball managers are a modern day Pete Rose, who was the most recent player-manager in Major League Baseball (MLB).

Coaching has historically been undervalued in sports, including MLB, and likewise in wiffleball. The DROP spoke with 5 Mid Atlantic Wiffle (MAW) managers who have more than 50 years of combined coaching experience to find out how coaching helps a team achieve success.

In what might be the most difficult thing to do in sports, hitting a wiffleball, small things often make a big difference.

There are a high percentage of games decided by total bases or one run, which magnifies different decisions.

“It really is a game of inches,” said Longballs’ captain and Manager Dylan Harshaw. “Having your team prepared in the field or coaching the defense into certain alignments could be the difference in someone hitting a roller to the fence and winning with a walk-off double or having a perfectly placed outfielder to stop it short for a single.”

Beyond the physical aspects of the game, wiffleball coaches sometimes work to boost their team’s mental part of the game.

“Wiffs is a tough sport. It is tough to hit. So if a guy is ‘on time’ with a pitch (fouls the pitch off), you got to celebrate and give them confidence,” said Jerry Hill, manager of the Barrel Bruisers. “It is important to celebrate small victories.” 

Mid Atlantic Wiffle (MAW) Director and long-time Stompers manager (22 years), Tim Cooke said coaching can help players improve their game.

“Coaching is still a very niche aspect of Wiffle, but anytime you can help people learn something new or refine something, that is part of coaching,” said Cooke.  

The sport’s difficulty and high rate of individual failure can take its toll on the players and the team. Some coaches use a non-traditional method to boost their team’s belief.

“Pouting and moping because you K’ed is not going to help,” said York Yaks manager Nick Shirey, who has been coaching since 1998. “Bad things compound when that’s your mindset. It is important to stay positive.” 

Being optimistic isn’t the only method. The occasional comic relief has also helped teams.

“The prize money is really nice but it’s not changing any of our lives, so it would feel a lot better if we happened to get lucky and win an event as a unit,” rather than be super serious and sitting players Shirey said. “I wear glasses but I don’t when I play wiffleball. Maybe that would help…nah.”

Jimmy Cole, manager of the Meats, uses a similar method for keeping his team loose.  

“We try not to get too down on ourselves,” Cole said. “I try to lighten the mood. If someone is struggling I will tell them to swing or throw harder.”

After all, wiffleball is supposed to be a competitively good time.

“A guy who can stay relaxed under any given circumstances and realize at the end of the day no matter the outcome, we are all friends just playing a kids game for fun,” added Cole.

The nuts and bolts of wiffleball coaching varies from team to team and covers a plethora of areas. 

Coaches often assist with items such as choosing a team name, making a uniform and logo, building and choosing a roster (both overall and for individual tournaments), setting a batting lineup, coordinating the pitching rotation and pitching changes, choosing the fielders and defensive alignments, and many in-game management decisions. Lots of these decisions and strategies depend on factors such as talent, pitching and depth.

Being a wiffleball manager is both similar and dissimilar to managing in MLB. Wiffleball’s uniqueness presents its own set of difficulties for its leaders.

“Wiffleball is an interesting sport in that a pitcher might end up walking three batters in a row and then follow it up with six straight strikes to end the inning,” said Harshaw. “Because of this, it’s a really tough to make decisions at times.”

The difficult judgements lead to either positive or negative results, but wins and losses shouldn’t be the only outcome that is considered.

“Success can be measured in many ways and if you are lucky you will be playing as you get older with your friends,” said Shirey. “Wiffleball is a tool that you can use to hang out with your buddies. Do it because you have a group that loves playing the game, loves competing, and enjoys each other’s company.” 

Lots of these coaching decisions are either met with enthusiasm or a shake of the head. A coach’s decisions and actions are always under scrutiny.

“It’s nice to know that at end of the day my teammates count on me to make decisions,” Harshaw said. “But having to decide if certain people will have to sit out and deciding on cutting players from certain tournaments is tough.” 

Hill mentioned that pitching decisions and fielding a team are his least favorite aspects of coaching.

“Trying to field a team week to week is a tough aspect,” said Hill. “I plan my summers around wiffle. I’ve been late to family gatherings and major events because wiffs was already on the calendar. It’s tough to ask that from your players.”

Cole echoed Hill’s challenge of having a full squad at tournaments.

“Just trying to get people to show up,” added Cole. “You have to plan for the worst case scenario. That is why I don’t go with very abstract game plans. I usually just play with guys I’m friends with so it’s just another day to hang out.”

Having a hitter who can smack homers to all fields and a pitcher who can fill the box score up with K’s is important, but it isn’t the only element for a team to consistently win and distinguish themselves from the rest of the competition.

“Good coaching will help iron out kinks in a team’s gameplay that could make a good team a great team or an average team a good team,” said Harshaw.

With lots of players coming to wiffleball after playing other sports, coaching can assist them with the change.

“I think coaches are huge in wiffleball,” said Hill. “The transition from hitting a hardball or softball to wiffleball is pretty dramatic or traumatic.”

All players can use coaching, especially new ones, according to Cooke.

“There needs to be a way to get new/young talent and develop them into good players,” said Cooke. “Players don’t become good overnight. It’s a process and someone who has been around the game a long time will usually have something positive to add to a conversation. Managing and coaching is going to keep growing if there is a constant pipeline in developing talent.”