About 18 years ago, the Brunswick Little League had so many players that it added a team, the Phillies, and Brad Foltz was asked if he would help coach the new team. He said yes, and he has since been involved with the Brunswick program in several capacities. Most of the time he's been coaching the Phillies, helping Jeff Axline, his cousin and team manager. He's also helped coach numerous all-star teams, including one 1995 team that reached the regionals. Foltz, 44, has also served on the league's board of directors since the mid-1990's, holding the title of vice-president for most of that time.
He's usually at the park five or six days a week. "I try and help anyway that I can - rake the field, cut the grass, help with the concession, clean the bathrooms," he said. "I only live a mile or two from the fields and it's easy for me to get out here. I see what needs to be done. Foltz has watched three of his sons play in the league, and has another playing in it now. He tried managing one year, but prefers coaching and letting his cousin handle the managing duties. "He knows exactly what I want," Axline said "Usually, it just takes a gesture. And he calms me down. I'm more of the hothead and he's the calming influence."
Brunswick Little League president Mike Price also praised him for his relaxed demeanor. "He's a voice of reason in our league," he said. Foltz never played in the Brunswick Little League, even though he grew up in Jefferson. Instead, he played for a youth league near his home. "It was more or less in our backyard, it was easier to get there," Foltz said.
Foltz is a project manager at the National Cancer Institute. He played baseball, soccer and basketball at Brunswick High School, and intramural sports at Salisbury University. He graduated from college in 1988. A few years later, his cousin asked him to help coach the Phillies. "At first, coaching was hard," Foltz said. "I always played the game, but now I had to learn how to teach it, to find out what worked and didn't. I usually found out what didn't work real quick."
He's seen the league change a lot over the years. When he started coaching, there was no coach-pitch or tee-ball. There were only two fields. A couple of years later, a nearby softball complex was turned into fields for coach-pitch and tee-ball. Over the years, the size of the league has remained about the same, he said. The most teams he remembers in a season was about 30, and the fewest was 22 or 23. The players have also changed. "We had kids that when we first started, they would run through the outfield fence for you," he said "You would have a hard time finding a kid that would do that for you these days." When he played, baseball was it. You would play in a league game then go to a pickup game. But now the players have so many other interests and so many other things to choose from. But none of that has changed his desire to coach baseball. "I just like working with the kids and helping them understand the game of baseball," said Foltz, who also has been a high school baseball official for about 20 years. "I like to see the progress that they make."
There are the rare times he can just go out and see a game. "Lots of times I come out and just watch," he said. "I sit (with his wife Taree) beyond the right-field fence, watch the game, relaxing and taking in some baseball."
