SPRINGFIELD – Representing your hometown is always an honor in sports – and when it comes to Thurston graduate and Drifters assistant coach Rocco Ferrari, Springfield is just in his DNA.
“It’s a really cool thing in my opinion to have a team here. And to be able to be a part of the coaching staff – or just to be a part of it in any way – but especially as part of the coaching staff is really special to me because I grew up here in Springfield playing baseball my whole life,” Ferrari said. “I went to Thurston High School. I feel like I’ve always been a part of the baseball community here, so it’s kind of nice to be on the other end of it and coach and be a part of the Drifters organization.”
What’s another cool thing about representing your hometown? Seeing others just like you live out that dream as well. For coach Ferrari, fostering the local talent is what the job is all about.
“It’s cool. … being a coach, giving back, doing our kids camps, working with local high school guys and our local guys on the team for the Drifters, too. It’s a lot of fun seeing the other end of it now as a coach,” he said.
While Ferrari’s career hasn’t taken him very far geographically, that’s a different story professionally and mentally. Even though he’d been playing baseball his whole life, the thought of coaching originated when he was in college at Chemeketa – a community college in Salem.
“I was playing in college … and I was really lucky to have an awesome head coach there named Nathan Pratt,” said Ferrari. “My time there made me really think about coaching when I was done with college. By the time I was done, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. So I just took my first opportunity coaching at (Northwest Nazarene University) – the school I ended up playing for my last two years – I stayed there and coached that third year I was there, and after that I was hooked. I knew I wanted to keep doing this.”
When he saw there was an opportunity in Springfield to coach a team in the WCL, Ferrari went after it.
“After I heard Springfield was getting a team … I wasn’t able to help out the first year, but last year I spent the whole winter and fall trying to try and reach out to some of the people here to see if I could be a part of this somehow. So I just recruited myself that way and got myself out there.”
Ferrari’s main focus coaching is with the infielders, working with the shortstops and second basemen – the position he played. On top of that, he also works as an assistant coach at Mt. Hood Community College.
Going forward Ferrari said he is open to wherever the job takes him.
“The plan is to go back (to Mt. Hood) for the 2025 season. But I don’t have anywhere specific I want to coach at,” Ferrari said. “The bigger universities are usually the higher-paying jobs. It would be nice to just have my primary job just be coaching baseball, instead of having part-time jobs to pay the bills and stuff. So any opportunity I can get, I’m not gonna be picky, I just want to coach for a living and be able to be at the ball field all day.”