Like many parents, Hank Snow became a Little League coach when his youngest son was playing.
But the difference between Snow and other parents is that he kept on coaching for years after his son left the game.
“I have a place in my heart for kids who want to play sports,” Snow told the Mount Vernon News. “I enjoyed meeting the parents and the kids. “
Snow, a retired electrician, is now 76 and has decided it’s time to end his 30-year-old coaching career.
“The coaching part of it, I’m turning that over to some younger people,” he said.
In all started in 1990 when he watched his son pitch for a Little League team sponsored by First Knox National Bank.
“From that point on, I was kind of hooked,” he said.
When his son moved on to a Babe Ruth League team sponsored by the Elks Club, Snow became a manager, a job he held until 2013. Eventually the Babe Ruth League was absorbed into the Mount Vernon Baseball Association. Snow and his wife, Barbara, both served as board members for both leagues.
In 2002, he helped organize a Fall League as well and plans to remain involved with it in a non-coaching capacity.
Youth baseball is good for kids in many ways, Snow noted.
“You learn to play with other kids,” he said. “It creates an atmosphere of unity.”
Baseball also helps young people stay fit and gives them something constructive to do during their leisure time, Snow continued. In addition to helping physically, baseball teaches them the power of concentration.
“Baseball in my opinion is a mental game more than it is a physical game,” he said. “You have to understand the game.”
His coaching strategy was always to encourage players to play their best, regardless of their ability.
“Everybody doesn’t have the same ability,” he said. “But what they do have, I wanted them to try to use it. That’s the thing I always emphasized.”
His coaching career would not have been possible without the support of his wife and family and the businesses who sponsored the teams, Snow said. Those include Fredericktown Chevrolet and Details Auto Care.
Barbara Snow said that as a baseball coach her husband was also a positive influence on his players.
“For some of the boys, he may have been the only role model for a father that they had seen,” she said.
He taught them life lessons such as sportsmanship and trying hard, she noted.
“Everybody likes to win, but he taught them how to lose gracefully, too,” she said.
Their grandson said a friend asked him how his grandfather landed all the good players.
“He doesn’t get all the good players, he makes them good players,” the grandson replied.
Snow said he will miss coaching but looks back with fond memories over the decades on the baseball fields.
“It’s been a wonderful time for me over the years,” he said. “I truly appreciate all the players, coaches and parents I have met and gotten to know.”
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