When Joe Small stepped into the Hopedale High baseball job it only took the first day of tryouts for him to assume it was not going to be a stairway to the stars scenario.
“Eight kids showed,” he remembered. “I thought you needed nine to play a game.”
Small begged kids to give baseball a shot. “One kid didn’t know which end of the bat to use.”
Hopedale got through the season with 11 players. They finished 7-7. Not bad at all, everything considered. The years zipped by and the Blue Raiders went 60-80. Nobody thought he was streaming to a Hall of Fame career.
Ha. When Small retired in 2013 after 24 seasons and 330 wins, guess what? He was just inducted into the Mass. Baseball Coaches Association. His teams won seven Dual Valley League championships, went to seven sectional finals and wound up in postseason play 18 straight times.
Hall of fame. Oh yeah.
Best Blue Raider team? “Each team was different,” said Small, who lives in Florida with his wife, Sue. “But in 2008 we beat undefeated West Boylston for the district title.”
Little Hopedale did that? Eyes opened.
Twenty years ago, Steve Simoes took over a small and struggling baseball program at Hopkinton High. A Connecticut guy, Simoes had never heard of Hopkinton. He took his Boston College degree and sailed into the business world. He eventually gave in to a higher calling.
“My heart was in teaching and coaching,” Simoes said. “It was in my blood.”
He moved to Natick. It would prove to be auspicious. One day, looking for a coaching job, he read a story in the Middlesex News (now known as the MetroWest Daily News) sports section. John Carroll was the high school athletic director, and much more than that. He was a Hall of Fame baseball coach and Natick legend. The school’s plush baseball complex bears his name.
Carroll was a charismatic and connected man in the high school sports world. Simoes decided “I’m going to talk to that guy.” Upon his visit to the AD office, Carroll’s secretary, Barbara Gershkowitz, told her boss a young man was looking for a coaching job. Carroll was busy at the time, but Simoes heard him say “tell him to come back at noon tomorrow. I’ll find something for him.”
Simoes came back; he walked out of Carroll’s office as the new JV coach at Westwood High. “And I’d never even met (Carroll),” Simoes said. A career had been launched.
Like Joe Small, a hall of fame career. He and Small were inducted in the Mass. Baseball Coaches’ Hall of Fame on Saturday at the Four Points Sheraton in Wakefield.
Twenty years ago, Steve Simoes took over a small and struggling baseball program at Hopkinton High. A Connecticut guy, Simoes had never heard of Hopkinton. He took his Boston College degree and sailed into the business world. He eventually gave in to a higher calling.
“My heart was in teaching and coaching,” Simoes said. “It was in my blood.”
He moved to Natick. It would prove to be auspicious. One day, looking for a coaching job, he read a story in the Middlesex News (now known as the MetroWest Daily News) sports section. John Carroll was the high school athletic director, and much more than that. He was a Hall of Fame baseball coach and Natick legend. The school’s plush baseball complex bears his name.
Simoes came back; he walked out of Carroll’s office as the new JV coach at Westwood High. “And I’d never even met (Carroll),” Simoes said. A career had been launched.
Like Joe Small, a hall of fame career. He and Small were inducted in the Mass. Baseball Coaches’ Hall of Fame on Saturday at the Four Points Sheraton in Wakefield.
Ironically, Small and Adams wound up roommates when they played for Orleans in the Cape League.
After high school, Small went to Quinsigamond Community for two years. “I was going to Framingham State to play for (coach) Steve Ryder.” Ryder, a superb outfielder at Framingham High, played in the Milwaukee Braves organization for several years.
Small got a baseball scholarship to New Haven University. “My last year we went to the Division 2 College World Series in Illinois. We won two games.” But not the title. Still it’d been a great ride.
Small got drafted by the San Francisco Giants, was hitting well in Rookie League ball, and subsequently busted his ankle. He was never the same. It was time to come home.
“I worked as a reserve police officer for 10 years, then went into painting,” he said.
But Hopedale was Small’s perpetual stomping grounds.
Meet Hopedale’s Alex Luccini:He was named Daily News Male Athlete of the Year for 2020-21
“It’s where everyone knew Joe,” said Justin Richards, who played for Small and later coached with him. “He was tough but fair. He got the most out of you.”
No coach takes kindly to losing. Small took it to the extreme. “He was fierce, he hated to lose,” Richards remembered. “He was a great mentor. If I needed baseball advice, I went to Joe.
“He took over a program that was in trouble and built it up. He did it the right way.”
It’s difficult for Simoes, 58, to circumvent the playing fields. A season ends, the next one begins. In his mind.
“I get really excited to start building a team in the offseason,” he said.
Along his Hopkinton run Simoes changed direction, coaching at Millis High for two years and assisting at Holy Cross. The road led back to Hopkinton.
The 2004 Hillers went 24-2, capturing the Division 2 state title. “Special team,” said the coach.
People who coached with Simoes offer high praise.
“Steve really supports his assistants,” said Kiely Murray, currently on his staff and a counselor at the school. “He walks the walk.”
Murray played softball and volleyball at Holliston High and coached those sports at Westborough.
“She’s been invaluable to me,” Simoes said.
Over 30 years, Keith Verra, a Natick native, has been a Simoes assistant, including the Millis stint. “Steve Simoes is the best teacher of baseball and communicator I’ve ever seen,” said Verra, who has known success of his own. In 2003 he guided Marian High to the Division 3 title. He’s the head coach at Northbridge High now.
Simoes stayed connected with his coaches during the shattered 2020 pandemic season. “Twice a week we had a Zoom link,” Murray said. As for former players, she said “everyone who plays for Steve stays in touch.”
True, Simoes didn’t at first grasp the totality of the Hopkinton restructure when he took the job. The Hillers had won just a handful of games the previous three seasons. “It was a small school. There were just three seniors on the team. We started freshmen and sophomores,” Simoes said.
When the team finished with a 6-13 record, the Middlesex News applauded with a headline that suggested the Hillers must have discovered a magical potion.
Simoes has been eye witness to vast change in high school athletics. “Almost all the kids are specializing in one sport. Private lessons, AAU and travel teams. We try to encourage multi-sport athletes. Luckily coaching kids hasn’t changed much.”
Like Small, Simoes got it down pat. The Hall of Fame kept count. “It’s an honor,” said Simoes. “I’m happy with the guys I’m going in with.” He reflected to when “Hopkinton and Hopedale were two of the smallest schools in Eastern Mass.”
“I’m looking forward to going (into the HOF) with Simoes,” said Small before the memorable night. Their careers have a similar ring. Their love of the game, teaching their players not just the game but about slices of life. Breathing in game days and even the practices.
Joe Small a painter; Steve Simoes a businessman? No chance. Just a couple of small town guys of one heart and mind. Play ball.
Lenny Megliola can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @lennymegs.