SPRINGFIELD – For a team that has won a grand total of three games over the past four seasons, Springfield High School is one lucky baseball program.
Life on the field has shifted quite dramatically now that Kyle Casperson has taken the reins as head coach.
“To me, the kids need to learn how to win. It takes a lot to win a baseball game. …
“There’s been a team culture of failure the last few years. That doesn’t mean it has to always be that way,” Casperson said Friday before the Millers’ game against Dallas at Hamlin Stadium.
“The quote of the day the other day was, ‘The only thing that can limit your future self is the doubts you have of today.’ So if you believe you can do it, we can get there. But it starts with the belief factor. I’m trying to get the guys to buy in on that side,” he said.
So far, so good. After going 1-26 last season, Springfield’s success won’t be measured this season by its won-loss record. There are more important issues on its plate.
“I’m totally process-oriented when it comes to all of this,” Casperson said. “The outcome is the outcome, when you take over a team with the experience we have, you just have to build brick-by-brick. It’s all about the foundation right now, I’m trying to implement my systems, and my assistant coaches (Alec Cook and Wryland McKnight) and I know that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Kyle Casperson said he learned valuable lessons while playing at Bushnell that prepared him for coaching – and life. He’s sharing those lessons with the Millers.
BOB WILLIAMS / CHRONICLE PHOTO
“I have a 4-5-year vision of what we want to do here, and we understand that success is not going to happen right away necessarily, but we have to change our definition of success. We just want to see progression every day and know what we’re working on in practice. Are we working on that at game time? Can we build on that? Things like that.
“I’ve been super detached from the outcome; whether it’s a win or a loss, are we playing baseball the right way, being good sports on the field, are we being good teammates in the dugout, are we being good sons when we go home, are we being good boyfriends?”
Collegiate experiences
College life didn’t start out as a bed of roses for Casperson, who grew up in Olympia, Wash.
In his freshman year at Lower Columbia College – an hour away from home in Longview, Wash. – he posted a 2.1 GPA his first term.
“It was my first year outside of my parents’ house, and Covid was about to hit,” Casperson recalled. “It took some growing up by me, and I had to look at myself in the mirror and decide what I wanted out of the next four years of college and also out of life after that.
“I had a talk with my head coach, Eric Lane – and with my parents, as well – that was a real wakeup call. Baseball had become so important to me that I was neglecting other things in my life. I put baseball on a pedestal, and I was doing every little thing as best I could just so I could become eligible. And that became a habit.”
A habit he was quickly able to break.
He spent the following three years at Bushnell, graduating with a 3.95 GPA last year with a degree in secondary education. During his time at the school, he won the Champion of Character award and was named Male Scholar Athlete of the Year and Distinguished Scholar Athlete.
“A lot of the lessons I’ve learned, how you do one thing is how you do everything,” Casperson said. “I believe it comes down to being a good man, and regardless of baseball, I was trying to be a good teammate to the guys and be a good student to my professors and teachers growing up.”
Casperson wasn’t just hitting the books at Bushnell, he was hitting the ball, too.
As a Gold Glove catcher last season he batted .396 – after briefly being a .400 hitter during the season finale.
“I think I messed myself up when I came to bat in the eighth inning at Georgia. ‘You’re a 22-year-old athlete, you know how to do this. Go have fun.’
“I was very blessed with my time at Bushnell. The greatest moment in Bushnell history was going to LC State (Lewis-Clark State) and beating them. There’s not a memory I relive more than going there and beating them.”
At home at Hamlin
For Casperson, the fun never stops when he gets to enjoy the beauty and luxury of Hamlin Sports Complex, where he played with Bushnell and now coaches his Springfield team. The Millers took a 3-1 lead over Dallas on Darris Bullock’s fifth-inning double Friday. Sophomore Trevin Moore pitched brilliantly, but everything fell apart in the later innings, and Dallas won 16-3
The end result wasn’t so great, but the Millers won the first five innings of the game. That counts for something.
“When I came here as a 19-year-old, they were still laying down rocks,” Casperson said. “I attribute so much to Tommy Richards, a three-year coach here. He’s the greatest man and role model I’ve ever had aside from my father. He stresses process over victories, and he was always out here with his sons. …
“Some of the kids I coached with the Drifters youth team are now with me – becoming a good man, a good father, a good husband, a good son, but this is about becoming a good man, when these kids graduate, they’re not going to remember the wins and losses, they’re going to remember the teammates they had, the people they interacted with in the clubhouse, even as a college athlete, I don’t really remember how we played, but I still text my best friends from the team every single day, and I attribute that to Tommy.”
Looking forward
Life keeps getting better and better for Casperson. On Aug. 2, he’s getting married to Aspin Aspin Slifka. “She’s a fourth-grade teacher here,” he said. “We’re very excited.
“We’re both very community-oriented and want to stay here a long time. I love the program here, and I would never want to put a time frame on how long I want to stay here. I just know that I want to be a part of the change here.
“I want these eight seniors to be good workers, good husbands, and good fathers and to have a good, productive life. Regardless of how long they play baseball, there’s a ton of life lessons to be learned out here, and I’m excited to watch them grow. Are you coming to the yard and having fun? Because it all translates to what you do with the rest of your life.
“There’s been a sense that sometimes kids are OK with losing. … But the culture is changing. It took awhile, but the kids are buying in now after going through a four-year coaching carousel. It has taken a while to build their trust in how to do things the right way. You have to keep preaching it and preaching it.”
Even though his parents were divorced while he was growing up, Casperson said both of them – along with his stepmom – were always positive influences.
“I credit them for all of my success,” he said. “I didn’t have a perfect home life, a split household, going from one household to the other with my sister. Home life is different for every single kid, you just have to keep your nose to the grindstone and good things will happen.”
Good things are certainly starting to happen for the Millers.
