Rodgers Brings Wealth Of Experience To H-F Baseball Program

HOMEWOOD, IL — Marcus Rodgers says he never had the benefit of receiving quality coaching when his baseball career began. Years later, after working as a major league scout and as the head coach of the Chicago White Sox Amateur City Elite program, his less-than-memorable beginnings in the game serve as a motivation to make sure his players experience something different.

Rodgers was recently named as the new varsity coach at Homewood-Flossmoor, where athletic department officials believe that his various experiences working with high-level programs will help take the Vikings program to another level.

Rodgers, a former varsity head coach at Thornwood High School, led the White Sox ACE junior and senior programs to four MLB RBI World Championships and has also coached the Chicago Cubs RBI Junior All-Star team, which showcases his ability to develop young talent and translate it into winning baseball.

Although he has worked as a scout for the Houston Astros and had access to the games through the Sox ACE program that he never expected he would, Rodgers says there is something about the high school game that made the job at Homewood-Flossmoor the right fit.

“I want to impact kids at this level to kind of set them up so they can be successful for when they go to college,” Rodgers told Patch on Wednesday.

“We want to show guys what (baseball) is supposed to look like so as they continue on, by the time it’s time to go to college, they’re a little bit of the game.”

Rodgers, who played collegiately at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, takes over the Homewood-Flossmoor program from John McCarthy, who left the program to take over at Lincoln-Way East. McCarthy led Homewood-Flossmoor to a 2018 sectional championship, but the Vikings will head into the new season in the spring after losing 23 seniors to graduation.

That includes Dillon Head, who was drafted in the first round in this summer’s Major League Baseball Draft by the San Diego Padres. But for Rodgers, building a team from the ground up is part of what he loves about coaching and that has long been part of his make-up as a developer of young talent.

The past 13 years of experience have included time with the Sox ACE program, which Rodgers says has changed the way he approaches working with young players. He said the investment the big-league team puts into sponsoring the ACE program has given him an appreciation for the investment that he now puts into young people as a coach.

“When you have that kind of investment in a kid, they understand that,” Rodgers said.

“I think as a kid, if you believe that someone believes in you and they invest in you, it’s an added advantage. There are times when you want to quit and you want to give up, but you know other people are counting on you.”

Rodgers will bring that attitude to Homewood-Flossmoor, where athletic director Matthew Lyke said that the new coach’s “commitment to cultivating not only exceptional baseball skills but also sportsmanship, competitiveness, and discipline aligns perfectly with the values we hold dear at Homewood-Flossmoor.”

Rodgers, who holds a Masters degree in Education from Concordia University, will teach in the Homewood-Flossmoor Delta Program. In addition to his previous head coaching job at Thornwood, Rodgers also worked with the baseball programs at Rich Central, Urban Prep Charter Academy, and Simeon High School.

Despite walking into a job where Homewood Flossmoor competes in one of the top athletic conferences in the state, Rodgers said that he will develop players that not only stresses good baseball, but a team-first concept in which everyone has a key role. He said regardless of if players take on a starring role or come off the bench, he wants to build an environment in which all of the pieces fit together for the good of the program.

Rodgers said he won't shy away from the challenges that await him in his new role at Homewood-Flossmoor and says his team will be committed to playing the right way. But in addition to cultivating winning baseball, Rodgers says he wants to also grow meaningful relationships that can lead to bigger things.

“Before (kids) care what they know, they have to know that you care,” Rodgers told Patch on Wednesday. “If we build these relationships, we show these kids that we care for them, that we love them, they’ll do anything for you and if you get 25 guys on the same page, you can do some special stuff – stuff that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”