Back in the summer of 1993, I was at a baseball camp in Magglingen, Switzerland. It was for the top youth players in the country. I was the 26-year-old head coach of the Therwil Flyers. Lou DeMartino was a future Hall-of-Fame coach from John Jay College, in Europe to help the Austrian Baseball Federation.
Lou told me I should run the camp since I knew most of the kids. But my mama did not raise a fool. I became a student that week. To this day, I still use some of the youth drills that he taught me.
Lou was a master with kids. My focus was always on men’s teams—the Flyers’ NLA squad and the Swiss national team. But Lou was built different. He connected with the young kids easily and taught fundamentals in a way that just stuck. He was the best I’d ever seen at it.
We spent hours every day talking baseball. He asked me all about my life coaching in Switzerland. He loved his time in Europe so much that he talked about coming back to Austria after he retired.
In the evenings, we’d go to a nearby hotel bar. We mingled with soccer stars from the Italian club, Juventus. We even met Merlene Ottey, the track star, who was also training there. Lou enjoyed every minute of it.
I had never missed a baseball game in my life, from little league through college. But I missed a doubleheader that week so I could be at this camp. And, I’m glad I did. The week I spent with Lou was life-changing for this young coach.
Coaching men in Switzerland became boring because of the skill limitations. Despite winning four Swiss League titles, my fondest baseball memories from the land of banks and chocolates are with the 1993 Swiss Junior Champions.
Seppi, Allain, Kolli, Raffy, Stevie, Chris, and the rest of that championship squad made teaching baseball fun. Those kids were the hardest working team in the country – and we had loads of fun at the same time!
Years later, I learned that after Lou retired in 1999, he did go back to Austria. I cannot recall who told me, but I heard years later that he died in a car accident.
I think about that week often. Now that I’m running the Bohol Coconuts Baseball & Softball Club, I try to use what I learned from him—especially about teaching young players. Lou made a lasting impact, and I’ve never forgotten it.
Coach Merv Moore is a former award-winning sports writer, former Swiss national team coach, and a former development officer for baseball and softball in Bhutan. He and his wife, Lerma, now reside permanently in Bohol, building the Coconuts into a beacon of player development.
