Life is pretty good for Nanih Waiya baseball coach Tyler Rogers right now.
The veteran coach is coming off back-to-back state championships in baseball and also helped coach the Warriors to its first-ever state championship in football. Last week, Rogers welcomed his second daughter into the world, while finding out he had been nominated for national baseball coach of the year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.
“It really is an honor,” Rogers said of the nomination. “I wasn’t expecting it. I know we have had some good teams but that has a lot to do with the kids and their parents putting in the time with them when they are young to get them ready to come play. I’m very blessed to have a good youth league and good athletic kids. When you have good players, it makes the coach look good.”
The Warriors are coming off an impressive two-year run in baseball where they went 29-2 last year and beat Smithville in two games for the 1A state championship. In 2017, the Warriors were 28-3 and needed three games to beat Smithville for the 1A state title.
“Honestly, I’m blessed because we have a group of kids who come to practice to work every day,” Rogers said. “That’s the key to me. We have good kids and they show up every day and want to practice and get better. Those kids do a great job of keeping the tradition going.”
Rogers is in his 13th season at Nanih Waiya after being a volunteer assistant at NW in his last two years of college for former coach Justin Reed, who is now the head coach at Tupelo.
Rogers will attend the national banquet in Bismarck, North Dakota in June to find out if he has been named the national coach of the year.
