For not only leading his team to the state championship title, but also creating a team culture that got everyone involved, Souderton Baseball Coach Mike Childs was given the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Coach of the Year Award. Childs is the first Souderton coach of any sport to receive the award.
“As soon as I saw it, I became instantly reflective of all the people that helped me win it. In my old age, I always think about reflecting back and how did I get this,” Childs said. “Obviously I had great players and great parents.”
According to Athletic Director Dennis Stanton, the culture that Childs built was a big key to the team’s success.
“Coach Childs runs a good program, and we did have a lot of talent last year,” Stanton said. “We had a terrific group of student athletes and coach Childs has standards that the student athletes live up to collectively and I think that helps them perform well on the field and also grow as a unit.”
Senior Brian Reiner thinks Coach Childs makes sure he does what he can to get the best out of the players.
“He pushed us to the limits that he knew we were capable of which showed when we succeeded the whole season and postseason,” Reiner said. “He also had confidence that we would win every game which made us want to do better.”
According to senior Evan Moyer, the team treated every single playoff game as if it was the state championship game.
“Childs is willing to do anything it takes to help the team win. He always gives his best effort and pushes us to be better everyday. He is a great leader for our team and played a big role in getting us to the State Championship,” Moyer said. “I think the biggest help he gave us was keeping us focused. He made sure we never took any team for granted.”
Stanton believes that not having a good team atmosphere leads to a team not reaching their full potential.
“I don’t think it guarantees that you are going to have a good team, but if you have a bad culture it guarantees you will not reach your potential,” Stanton said. “If your team is negative, or out for one another and they don’t really have what’s best for the teams interest, they are still going to win games but I don’t think they are going to win as many games as they should if the culture is bad.”
Childs was in “total shock” when he won the award, and was already happy to have won the state championship.
“I think of it as a ‘Thanks to the time you put in’, but obviously you got to have the horses to even get to a state championship, and I gave 1000% credit to my players, if you don’t have the horses you can’t win the race. It was definitely an experience and definitely fun and I am appreciative that I received it,” Childs said.