EGELSTON TOWNSHIP – When the Oakridge softball team takes the field for its season opener on Tuesday, there will be a familiar and beloved face back in the dugout.

Longtime head coach Joe Coletta is back at the helm after a quick retirement that lasted just two years.

Coletta, 63, retired after the 2019 season, following a terrific career leading the Eagles. In 13 seasons his teams posted a stellar 267-122 record, with five West Michigan Conference championships, seven district titles and one regional crown.

The 2019 season was one of his best. The Eagles finished with a 33-4 record and gave eventual state champion Escanaba all it could handle before falling 1-0 in a nine-inning thriller in a regional championship game.

Coletta stepped aside after that tournament run to spend more time watching his son Ty Coletta play varsity baseball for Oakridge.

“I had missed too many of his games,” Coletta said. “I had missed a lot of his freshman and sophomore seasons. I didn’t like that. I didn’t want to miss any more and wanted to be a part of seeing him play.”

Coletta really had fun watching Ty play his senior season, after his junior campaign was cancelled due to the pandemic.

“It was the best,” said Coletta about the experience last spring. “I’m so glad that I did what I did. I got to help out on the coaching staff of the baseball team, too. I got to be in the dugout after Coach Barry asked me to help out. That was really special, and they made a good run into the quarterfinals.”

Ty graduated last spring and is now studying at Muskegon Community College, and his dad was planning to get involved with the softball team again, as an assistant coach. He expected his replacements – the wife-husband coaching duo of Sharon and Jake Schumann – to be in charge of the program for a long time, and he just wanted to help.

But the Schumanns found teaching jobs closer to family in Big Rapids and departed after last season. Oakridge posted the head coaching job, Colette applied, and suddenly his career was on again.

“I didn’t expect the Schumanns to leave,” Coletta said. “It was kind of our master plan to have her (Sharon) be the head coach and me be an assistant, so I could be involved.”

The fact that he recently retired as a physical education teacher at Oakridge High School helped convince Coletta that he would have plenty of time for the head coaching job again.

“I got to thinking, I’m retired from teaching while my wife is still teaching,” he said. “I got time on my hands and I’m still passionate for it, so I decided to apply.”

Despite being away from the team for two seasons, Coletta knows a lot of current Oakridge softball players, so there will still be a sense of continuity this spring.

“I knew four girls on the team still who I had coached,” he said. “I knew a lot of the other girls because I had taught them. So overall, I am pretty familiar with the team. I thought it would be a smooth transition back, and having Red Pastor stay on as an assistant kind of made the transition smoother.”

Coletta said his wife, Tracey Coletta, is fully supportive of his decision to dive into coaching again.

“She was totally on board,” he said. “She loves softball and we’re a big softball family. She was fully behind it and that was very important for me. I had no doubt she would be.”

Longtime Oakridge sports fans know that Coletta did not build his reputation around softball. He spent 25 years as a varsity football assistant coach under legendary head coach Jack Schugars, and was on the football staff during two state championship seasons and two runner-up seasons.

He developed his love for softball after taking the varsity coaching job because somebody had to do it.

“I kind of got into it with an idea I was going to do it until someone else wanted to,” he said. “But then it got in my blood and I really enjoyed the game. I enjoy the people who are associated with the game, and I just really started to become a student of the game.”

Now that he’s back in the softball dugout, Coletta said he has no plans of retiring again any time soon.

“I haven’t really thought about how long I’ll do this,” he said. “My wife has a couple more years before she can retire. I know I’m not looking to get out after one year or even two years. I really don’t have a timeline. I just want to do the best job I can do. I’m highly motivated and I don’t see myself stepping away any time soon, as long as my health is good.”

 

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