The John Crawford Volunteerism Award
Our friend, John Crawford addresses the team in 2012
Last year, we found a way to honor a volunteer who lost a battle with cancer. His name, John Crawford. We first met John in 2012 at the World Series in Ames, Iowa. John and his wife, Becky were chosen to be the Renegades sponsor family for the week.
That year, we were so shorthanded. We traveled to the series with just 4 volunteers, the smallest crew we ever had. We asked John for help. He ended up blowing us away with his contributions. John took a week off from work to help a group of complete strangers. He hit fungo in the morning during warm ups. John manned our on deck circle. He gave motivational speeches. John helped us get our supplies before we got to Iowa. John and Becky even did our filthy laundry. This was just some of the stuff he did for the team. He also did plenty for the league to promote the series coming to his hometown in Ames. That relationship didn’t stop in Iowa as John helped us off the field for years as well. Bottom line, John blew us away.
Being blown away and coming out of nowhere – that’s what this award is about. We want to celebrate volunteers who blew us away during the season and came out of nowhere to do things we needed and they may not have done before.
2022 Award Winners
2022 marked the inaugural season for this award. To learn more about the contributions of these four amazing volunteers, please check out the links below:
Jacob Coiner and His History With the Renegades
Our first honoree of the 2023 season is Jacob Coiner. Jacob embodied John’s spirit as he came out of nowhere and blew us away.
Jacob’s history with the team actually started in 2017 when he came out to Boston to visit his brother, Ben Coiner. Ben was very active with the team at this time and dragged his brother to practice with him. Jacob practiced with us for about 4 weeks, getting his feet wet with the squad. Fast forward to the fall of 2022. Ben brought Jacob to a charity game we had in Salisbury. With Ben back in the area after medical school, Jacob had also moved to the area for work.
During the fall of 2022, Jacob and Coach Rob had some conversations about joining the squad. To say Jacob was hesitant was an understatement. He was not sure he could help and wanted some time to think about it. Jacob was uncertain he could help coach hitting and was unsure of his availability for the team. What seemed to interest him the most was hitting fungo. So many former baseball players still enjoy picking up a bat and swinging it. He fell into that category. We wanted him to volunteer because he wanted it not because of an obligation due to his brother’s tie to the team. It had to be his decision. His eventual answer was “yes!”
Jacob Coiner’s Contribution
Jacob Coiner doing his thing working out our defense
Rain, wind and 40 degree temps welcomed the Renegades to its kick off practice. Jacob was there despite the New England spring weather. In fact, Jacob was always there. Only 2 of the 23 volunteers made more practices than Jacob and one of them was the head coach.
Rob Dias says, “Since moving to the Boston area, Jacob has been all in, taking the baton from his brother Ben and running full steam ahead. Jacob has been a consistent presence at practice, racking up one of the highest attendance totals all year among all coaches/volunteers”.
Designing practice plans to help a team achieve its goals is one of the most important things a head coach needs to do. A head coach needs to assess the team’s needs, its strengths and its weaknesses. A head coach needs to put together plans on how to minimize its weaknesses and to continuously improve. Jacob made this easy for the Renegades in 2023. It was pretty much a constant from day one that Jacob was hitting to the defense. With only one third of the coaches making at least half the practices in 2023, having people consistently present was so important. This speaks volumes of what Jacob did for the team in his rookie campaign.
Jacob Coiner’s Impact
Rasik Waikar, Jacob Coiner and Rob Weissman at the Sox game as the team was honored by the Red Sox on this day
His steady presence helped in a few ways. Jacob has the skills to hit the ball where he wants all over the field. He can hit dribblers, fly balls, line drives and bombs. Jacob can hit to left and right field to represent any type of hitter in the league. “Jacob’s big bat and precision ball placement got us ready for some big games this year while simultaneously ensuring player safety. Jacob has the capability of taking our heads off at any given time but for some strange reason hasn’t chosen to do so! Being one of the players on defense closest to home plate I’m especially thankful for the restraint he shows at the plate!”, claims Rob Dias.
Jacob also became a quick study of how we run our team defense practices. Being able to just give him the practice plan and let him work was easy and allowed the coaches to focus on other areas that needed more attention. In previous seasons, we lacked this consistency at this station and too often would have to spend valuable time at practice explaining things to new coaches every week. Guy Zuccarello adds this comment, ” I can’t thank Jacob enough for the huge impact he had on our 2023 season. In the context of team sports, I have heard many coaches use the phrase that the best ability is availability. In this regard, Jacob was amazing. His constant presence at practices enabled us to grow and improve as players and as a team. ”
What started as an “I’m not sure” changed to a “I’ll be there”. Jacob not only helped us at our official work outs. He joined us in the cage for sessions with hitters and most recently in the fall showed up to help us run a few hours of drills to improve our play on defense for a few players.
Jacob’s bat
Jacob was the first Renegade new signee for the 2023 and he made the biggest impact on the team’s operation. His dedication to our program went above and beyond any of us expected when he first started. His quiet demeanor at practice resulted in loud hits for more than 2 hours every practice.
Though Jacob was often soft spoken, his bat did the talking. That bat helped prepare this defense all year. The end result was the Renegades finishing 5th in the world. Additionally, of the 19 teams who attended the series, Boston had 10 different players make a play on defense. Only four teams accomplished this feat in 2023 (Indy Thunder, Philly Fire and Houston Hurricanes). That stat speaks volumes to the way we coach, the way we trust players, the way we play everyone and the way we prepare our players. Jacob Coiner’s dedication to this team and consistency at practice truly helped us achieve this goal.
Rob Dias felt his impact stating, “I want to sincerely thank Jacob for giving up his time and energy this year helping us to be a better team. We players are tremendously grateful to all our coaches/volunteers and want to give a huge shout out today to one of our standouts for the 2023 season. Thank you Jacob!!! ”
Guy concludes this saying. “Jacob, you were a huge piece of any defensive success we had. You were a mainstay when it came to hitting into our team defense practices. Your willingness to spend hours in the cold or heat hitting ball after ball at us just to help us improve was greatly appreciated. I am so glad that your important contributions are being recognized with this year‘s Crawford Award!”