Cheboygan’s Hancock to receive MHSBCA Assistant Coach of the Year honor
CHEBOYGAN – Scott Hancock has been Cheboygan’s junior varsity baseball coach since the program started about 35 years ago.
He's not only helped develop quality players, but he’s been a huge role model for many in the community.
In late June, Hancock will receive one of the biggest awards a high school baseball coach can get when he's honored by the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association (MHSBCA) as an Assistant Coach of the Year.
“You’re humbled and you feel good because you know that somebody appreciates what you’re doing – and mainly that’s my boss in Kevin Baller,” said Hancock. “Kevin, I work for him, he’s the varsity coach, it’s his program, we run his stuff and do it the way he likes to do it, so obviously Kevin is pleased with what I’m doing, so it's very satisfying that your head coach would nominate you for an award like this."
Hancock will be presented with the award during the 2023 MHSBCA East-West All-Star Classic at Detroit’s Comerica Park on Monday, June 26.
Cheboygan varsity baseball coach Kevin Baller, who’s worked with Hancock for almost a quarter of a century, praised the longtime coach for the positive impact he’s had on the program.
“I can’t think of a better person to get this award,” said Baller. “Coach Hancock’s been with me as long as I’ve been coaching in Cheboygan, and this was my 24th year. He was my JV coach when I was in the program, and he’s coached numerous kids. Names you could throw out there from Adam LaLonde to Damon Proctor. There’s kids that have gone on to play college. Ben Grinnell, Kaleb Blaskowski and Tyler Balazovic and Daniel Wilcome and Henry Stempky. The list goes on with the number of kids that he’s coached that have gone on to play college sports, and the number of kids that aren’t playing sports but are business professionals and teachers and running their own business.
“He’s impacted numerous lives.”
While Hancock has spent a great portion of his time in charge of the Cheboygan JV program, he did step aside for multiple years to help Baller as an assistant on the varsity. During those times, Hancock coached both of his sons, Brian, a 2005 Cheboygan graduate, and Nick, who graduated in 2010. Each time his sons graduated, Hancock went right back to leading the JV Chiefs.
Whether it was working with his sons or anybody else, Hancock’s enjoyed his long coaching journey.
“The most enjoyment I have is watching a kid improve from the beginning the year until the end of the year, and I don’t care if it’s a freshman or a senior, whatever it is – you see development,” Hancock said. “Kevin and I were both talking about how we had some kids who came out this year who never played baseball before, and to see them play in the district game, and play well. It's not cool that we had kids out, but it’s cool that we had kids step up who have never played the game before that have come so far from the beginning of the year until right now.
“To see that improvement as a coach, you feel good that those kids have improved under your guidance.”
For Hancock, bonding with players both on and off the field has been so important.
“It’s the relationships that you build,” Hancock said. “Coaching is great as far as making kids better at the sport that they love, but the relationships that you build outside of baseball are the things that are really important to me, because we’ve got a great community here, with great people, and there's kids that come back and see you throughout my whole life, so I’ve coached kids for 40 or so years and I still talk to kids from way back when I started, so it’s kind of neat to have those relationships with kids that have been out of school for a long time, and now they’re adults, they have their own kids, and now I’m coaching their kids.”
When it comes to being a role model, Baller said Hancock is the best of the best.
“Not only the development of players, but Scott's just the class act and a role model for all kids to follow,” Baller said. “He’s been in the (recreation) department for 40-plus years, and he's had an impact on numerous kids, not just in sports. Let’s talk about outside of sports and working with kids in the community overall."
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Cheboygan’s Hancock to receive MHSBCA Assistant Coach of the Year honor
