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The Saint Mary’s University took another coaching hit on Tuesday.
Long-time baseball coach Nick Whaley stepped down after 12 seasons.
It’s another loss for the Cardinals — the seventh coach since 2006 — but it will be a gain for Cotter High School.
While Whaley resigned his baseball and director of physical education positions at SMU, he will take over the same positions and varsity volleyball coaching duties at Cotter.
“I was surprised,” SMU athletic director Nikki Fennern said. “If he was thinking about it for awhile, he didn’t let on.
“You never want to lose someone like him. Saint Mary’s is losing, not only a great coach, but also an outstanding teacher and person.”
Meanwhile, third-year Cotter baseball coach Mat O’Brien, who led the Ramblers to a third-place finish at state in 2006, will be moving to St. Paul to go to graduate school at the University of Minnesota. O’Brien will also be a volunteer assistant baseball coach at the University of St. Thomas.
“Last spring, Mat and I talked quite a bit, and he was considering moving,” Cotter athletic director Pat Bowlin said. “He made decision in February that was going to happen.
“Mat did an outstanding job for us — not only in baseball, but in football, basketball and the Phy. Ed. department. We are very fortunate to get a good coach to replace him.”
Over Whaley’s 12 seasons, he made a huge impact on everyone from administration down to his student athletes.
“He’s meant everything to me,” said SMU assistant baseball coach Benji Huegel, who played for Whaley at SMU from 1996-99 and then worked as an assistant thereafter. “As a coach, when I was a player, he was a great teacher of the game. And, when I started coaching, he gave me my first shot and a lot of responsibility as a young guy right out of college.
“He taught me a lot about baseball but more about working with people.”
Huegel will also miss the laughs, including the multiple times Whaley has fallen asleep mid-sentence on those long road trips.
It’s something he’s become quite known for doing.
“That is the all-time classic story of Nick,” SMU sports information director Donny Nadeau said. “Something people may not know about Nick, too, is he’s an absolute professional-wrestling buff. He could tell you names of pro wrestlers you’ve never hear of. One trip in Florida we spent an hour going back and forth with names.”
Perhaps that knowledge will be passed on to the high school community. In moving to those ranks, Whaley is looking for a more hands-on role with the development of students.
“It’s not that I want to leave,” Whaley said. “The reason I’m excited about going to high school is that the development is from within.
“It’s building from the grade schools and middle schools and developing and building a program in that fashion as opposed to going out and recruiting. I also feel like I will be able to make a greater difference in high school.”
Whaley was also excited to be able to take over the volleyball program, as well — a program he had coached during three seasons in the past.
Cotter has had two volleyball coaches in the past two years. Whaley will take over for Casey Flanagan.
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