For Temple's Matt Rhule, coaching son in Little League 'way more fun than I ever thought'

IT'S 4:45 ON a recent weekday and there's a light drizzle coming down on the Taney Youth Baseball Association fields at FDR Park in South Philly, across Broad Street from the sports complex, where the Phillies are supposed to play Miami in a little more than two hours. It's been raining on and off for most of the afternoon. The forecast is calling for the precipitation to stop, well, soon. One of the in-house teams in the league for 11- and 12-year-olds, the Wizards, has just arrived in several carloads. Even though their record doesn't have them near the top of the standings, they seem rarin' to go. In a season where there's been way too many washouts, they just want to play.

They're kids.

Their coach is trying to be optimistic, even though he knows the all-dirt infield has already taken on some water and doesn't necessarily drain that well. "It's been a tough spring with the weather," he concedes.

If only his Temple football team was getting ready to play a game, it wouldn't be a concern. Then he might actually be embracing the conditions. But that's his real job. And that season is still some three months away.

"You guys are soft," he jokingly tells his players when the wet stuff begins to pick up and some of them seek shelter beneath the same tree where he's been standing as he talks to a curious reporter who also covers his games in the fall. "Then why are you there?" a few of them want to know. "I was just making sure it was dry," is his comeback.

Welcome to Matt Rhule's other world, which has kept him busy four times a week (two games and as many practices, as long as Mother Nature cooperates) throughout a season that's just coming to an end. No, these guys won't be playing for a championship, as the older guys he's responsible for did last December, but that's hardly the point.

"It's been a fantastic outlet for me," said Rhule, whose oldest child and only son, 11-year-old Bryant, is one of his players. "The other kids, I think a couple of them probably know (what I do). But they just know me as Matt or coach. They all know that I'm just their Little League coach.

"(Bryant has) asked me if I would do it again next year. I told him I'll have to see if they renew my contract."

Bryant had played for Taney the previous two years. This is the first time his dad has coached the team. Before that . . .

"I'm like a lot of dads," said Rhule, who also has two daughters, 3-year-old Vivienne and Leona, who was born last year. "I never coach my kid when I'm not the coach. I'd sit in the outfield and just watch. I never want to say to him, 'Hey, do this,' when someone is telling him to do something else. Now I want him to listen to me. But for the record, he doesn't. He listens to Adam and those guys."

That would be Adam DiMichele, the one-time Owls quarterback, who now is Rhule's director of player development. And those other guys are video coordinator Matt Delgado and Ryan Kelly, the assistant director of football operations. Now they're his assistants. Two of them played baseball at the college level. So he leans on them, sometimes a lot. And as they unanimously put it, this gets them out of the office. One said that if he wasn't here, he'd be coaching "his cousins" anyway.

"And if something goes wrong, he can blame it on us," Kelly said, smiling. "That's why he's the first-base coach and I'm at third."

Rhule, who was a walk-on linebacker at Penn State, played baseball when he was young. It just wasn't his passion. And his dad Denny, who he says had a calming influence, coached him. So it was something he wanted to share with his son, too.

"I spend all my time coaching 125 other guys," Rhule said. "Why not spend some more time with him? During the (football) season he's always around the team, not so much with me as he is with the players. He's grown up with that. He considers them friends. My wife (Julie) thought it was funny that I was going to try this, because I'm so intense. I think one (umpire) was going to throw me out of a game if I said something. I could see the headlines you'd be writing about me . . . Thank goodness I'm not being judged on wins and losses. A lot of people give a lot more of their time than I do.

"This is my son, but it's my firstborn, too. I've had such a strong relationship with him. I want quality time, but I always want quantity. Once football starts, it's harder. If it means picking him up at school or staying up on a Saturday night to watch 'Star Wars,' you have to do it while you can.

"He's been there for me, supporting my career. He was with me in the bus after lost to Idaho my first year (2013), because he traveled to that game, and when we beat Memphis later that season he was in the locker room celebrating. So it's not because I'm some great baseball coach. I don't want all his memories to be around me coaching football."

The Owls tied a program record by winning 10 times last season. They were ranked for the first time since 1979. They beat Penn State for the first time in 75 years. This obviously is different. But it means just as much, maybe more.

"(Bryant) talks about baseball all the time," Rhule said. "He watches the Phils, and I'm watching classic college football from like 1978. This has been great for both of us. We go back behind the house and play catch. A lot of it's been about him calling or texting me at work asking if we're going to be rained out again.

"They're having fun. They win, they lose, they hit the ball, they strike out. Then you get a bag of chips, get in the car and go home to do something else. We really haven't had a bad day. I hope we're doing a decent job. I did it to try to be a good father, but I'm having way more fun than I ever thought. And not just with (Bryant). With the other kids, the other coaches. It's been a blast. Practices are my favorite part. When you can do something that you love and it doesn't give you an ulcer at the same time, that's a good thing. It's coaching in its purest form.

"When we won our first game, and it kind of came down to the wire, the kids were so excited. You want them to have a good experience. And everyone seems to have the right mentality. The other day (Bryant) got up and hit a ground ball to first base. They threw him out, and he's running back (to the bench) and he runs behind their catcher. And he's one of the older players in the league, one of the better players. And he just put his hand out and gave him (a high five). You see that and it's a lesson for all of us."

Bryant said he likes having his dad around, because "it's sad" when he's gone. Even when his first-year coach tries something that doesn't work.

"One time he told one of our players to steal," Bryant duly noted. "And they weren't safe. So I said, 'What are you doing, Dad?' "

Sure sounds like a reasonable enough question.

Anyhow, it's hard to tell who's gotten more out of these moments.

"Teaching is teaching," Rhule said. "You're trying to make them believe in themselves. It's completely the same as the NFL. What's different is the level of intensity around it. If one of my kids (here) doesn't get it right, you just say try again. If it's one of my kids at Temple, I might say it another way. But at the end of the day you want them to enjoy what they're doing and get better. It's been great to see the way these guys respond at their age, and how that gets us going. You'll never get time like this back. Right now you don't know who's going to be 6-2 or 5-8, so let's just have a good time.

"Whenever I see youth coaches work with my son, whether it's swimming or karate or whatever, I'm always amazed at the patience. It's invigorating the way they slowly teach and teach kids, step-by-step-by-step, and guide them and help them get to a place. There's a big difference between trying and doing your best, even on a smaller level. What we've tried to do with these kids is tell them not to worry about the result. Focus on how you play, how you practice. So they come out and play hard. And if they lose they come right back. They're resilient. Then they're off to the next thing. They just want to know what the (postgame) snack is."

By the time the ump arrives, the rain has picked up. So it's going to be yet another game that will have to be rescheduled. Nobody's happy about that, but there's nothing anyone can do. The weather always wins.

"Who wants to play football (instead)," one player shouts out.

"Coach, I have a social studies test," said another. "The English are fighting the French."

"You can ask (DiMichele) about that," Rhule responds. "He knows more than I do."

A few of his guys are still throwing wet balls around. One nearly bounces off his leg.

"Curveballs are supposed to curve," Rhule points out. "Don't hit the old man . . .

"I say we start sliding in the mud. But if anyone asks, Adam's the one that said to do it."

What more could you want from any leader?

The Phillies started on time. The Wizards were home by then, probably lost in whatever was next. Rhule can resume thinking about the Owls' opener against Army some other time.

@mikekerndn