By: Larry Vaught
DANVILLE, Ky. - Senior
Will Kempf of Louisville always thought there was a possibility he might want to stay involved in baseball after his baseball career ends this spring at Centre college.
That's why he knew getting to work with the USA Baseball 12 and under national team last summer was a big opportunity for him — and that was before the team won the gold medal in Taiwan.
"It was crazy even when I was doing it," he said.
He said Centre coach Drew Briese and assistant
Taylor Valentine both have experience with USA Baseball and helped encourage him to pursue the position he got.
"I threw up what I thought was a prayer turning in application and it worked out," Kempf said. "I was in North Carolina most of the time working with the 12U team. I went to California with them and then when they went to Taiwan I went back to North Carolina and watched the live stream of the competition."
He said his "coaching part" was limited and he did a "lot of roaming around, managing equipment and some dirty work" but he enjoyed every minute of the experience.
"You just helped wherever you were needed and it was kind of all hands on deck even for the non-interns," Kempf said. "I did a lot with logistics working on flights, hotels, meals. I even did laundry. It was kind of cool to get to do all that and even see how the team trained and eventually was selected.
"I kind of use the foot-in-the-door phrase all the time. I have always kind of thought coaching might be my calling. I tend to do better on the thinking side of baseball than the playing side. Being with USA Baseball was an incredible experience for me personally but also is going to be great to have on my resume."
Kempf is a psychology/Spanish major. He has always had an interest in psychology and decided on a Spanish major also after taking a class his first semester at Centre.
"I felt it would be cool to be fluent in Spanish and have a major in it. I had taken some Spanish in high school and fortunately everything aligned her and I have the credits to get both majors done," he said.
He got to put his Spanish to use on Centre's recent baseball exhibition/mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
"That was one of the best experiences I have had since I've been here. It was my first time in a Spanish speaking country. I thought I could do it but I had only used Spanish in a classroom and not with others fluent in the language. It was kind of baptism by fire," he said. "I was not the only one in our group who could speak Spanish but I was definitely one of the people who spent more time trying to get it right.
"The baseball games were a blast. We went through a little X and O work to get ready for the season but coach Briese did not want us thinking baseball all the time. We got to interact with kids around the game and there were probably about 200 kids around the field the first game we played. We visited boys and girls homes."
Kempf said learning the perspective of how the people found joy was fulfilling to him.
"It's one thing to see kids smiling and playing but to go up and talk to them and ask questions is different. I had one conversation and the 11-year-old kid was trying to take it easy on me and talk slower to make sure I got what he was saying," Kempf said.
The Centre senior knows if he someday landed a professional coaching job his Spanish background could help since numerous Latin American players play pro baseball.
"I think I would probably want to coach in college because this age group is fun to be around and it is important for them to have good mentors and leaders looking out for them. I have benefitted from that here and think that would fit me best but you just never know," Kempf said.
Centre went 28-17 last season and 13-8 in conference play when Kempf played in 19 games.
"I have kind of realized some of the interest in coaching has come from the ups and downs in baseball and a lot of failure every player has. I have struggled but that means I have to love baseball. I love being part of the team here," he said. "Three classes above me created such a good environment and we felt welcome. Now there are three classes below me and I want them to have the same environment my class had and appreciated.
"We are talented this year and in good shape to have a good spring. We have the team unity dynamic down and that's one of the toughest things to work out. So we have that and I think that's going to set us up for a really good year."
