By Bob Hooper

FieldHouse Pirates

We lost a game on the ball field on our fall trip.

Yet, our organization lost a lot more than that.

We lost one of our hardest working coaches ... a day one coach: Steve Tait, 42, who died in his sleep in Durham, N.C.

My friend Steve grew up in Hamilton and was a long time coach in the Hamilton youth levels. He came to the FieldHouse program in 2015 and was a big part in building out our facility in the beginning. Steve has been a coach at the 17U level through all that time, so he has an affect on hundreds of youngsters who played for our program over the years.

Steve was a wonderful, knowledgeable coach, and was well respected in the Canadian Premier League. For the Pirates, he was a senior level coach who mentored a lot of the young guys coming up, learning how to manage high level teams. Steve loved helping kids get to college and although he was a tough coach, he had a big soft spot for players who worked hard and took pride in their preparation.

Each fall, Steve managed our Fall Trip College tour and always did a great job for the players, helping them to be seen by colleges ... having them experience all levels of college ball to open their eyes to what to expect at the next level.

Steve had two children, Aila and Ty, and a long-time girlfriend Alison. We extend our deepest sympathies

My message to our families

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Dear Pirates Families,

I am writing as notice of the passing of our good friend and colleague Coach Steve Tait.

Steve was a big part of building Fieldhouse from the very beginning, and he was an amazing coach, a mentor to many young coaches and players, and he was a great personal friend. It pains me to have to send this note to all of you, since I know how much Steve gave to this program, and how much he meant to so many of our coaches and players as a coach and in many moments beyond the game.

Off the field, Steve managed our inbound recruiting, and many of you may have met Steve in the beginning of your journey with Fieldhouse. He spent most of his time with our older groups, coaching third base, running the bus trips, and working with our infielders in the offseason. He took pride in his work, he spent hours studying and crafting coaching techniques, and he loved it. He brought many new drills that he found or created to the program, and as a master fungo hitter, he made kids better at baseball. He loved baseball, he loved coaching, and he loved your kids from the bottom of his heart.

His passion for coaching was infectious, and it made us all better coaches. Outside of Fieldhouse, Steve worked at factory jobs, first at Toyota and then at Dofasco where he worked hard, had long hours, and tough overnight schedules. Often he would come to practice straight from an overnight shift, so he could help out or run a new recruit through a tryout. He was reliable, and he worked hard.

Steve would often tell me that he loved working at Fieldhouse because it gave him a place to pursue his passion, a place to stay connected to the game, and a place to be around ambitious people and kids with so much potential. In the early years before he became a staff coach, he wouldn’t take a paycheck, insisting that he wanted to be part of it all, and then settling on an expense account for his collections of Jordans in all black, gold and white in every combination, his custom fungo bats and his rare Oakley sunglasses.

We will always remember Steve as the coach with the most style, but also as someone who took pride in himself, and in his position in the organization. Steve showed up to the field looking the part, with confidence and with pride in his look and uniform, and that translated to leadership for our players over the many years he coached them.

As the leader of the annual Fall Trip College Tour, Steve was the best in the business. He carefully researched schools that would play us and host our games, and he worked with college coaches all over the country to set up a great schedule.

He studied diners, BBQ joints, and restaurants and would book these places well in advance. He found great extra-curricular tours of colleges, minor league games, sports stores, and historical sites all over the US. He loved finding unique experiences for the players, whether it be a BBQ restaurant that served alligator soup, or a sports store with glove brands no one had ever seen before.

Mostly, he loved finding ball fields, it could be an old historic grass diamond with a wooden grandstand or a perfect new D-1 stadium, he loved it all, and he loved sharing it with the players.

When he’d recount his stories of ballparks and places they had seen on these trips, it makes me think of Steve the most. He had a look in his eyes and a big smile on his face when you could get him going. First, when discussing a great BBQ restaurant and its brisket, crawfish or corn bread. Second, whenever he would talk about his kids. The more mischievous the story the better, but especially talking about his kids having no fear on a roller coaster, or when one would stick up for themselves at school.

Steve was so proud, and so happy to have taught them to be tough and resilient. He wore his pride in his kids on his body in ink, and it was burned into his eyes whenever he spoke about them. Third, he loved talking about your kids, and he was so proud when a kid he had helped committed to a school, or signed a pro contract. He took pride in that. He liked knowing that he had made a difference. He made a big difference.

I understand this news will be upsetting to your players. Steve would not have wanted that, he would want to be remembered as someone who wanted the best for the kids always, he’d want his legacy to be that he instilled in players that they should take pride in their work, in their habits, and in their lives both on the field and off the field. He gave his heart and soul to our program, and that is how he will be honored and remembered by all of us. His work will carry on, his contributions have made us better and we will continue to walk the paths he created for us.

A Celebration of Life has been organized by the family on Sunday Nov. 17th, from 1-4 p.m., at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 222 Queenston Road in Hamilton.

I’m sorry to have to bring you this news, it breaks my heart to write this note, but please have your players reach out to Jimmy Richardson, TJ Singh or myself any time if they need to, we will be there for them.

Thanks,

Bob Hooper

President and Director of Business Operations

R. I. P. FieldHouse Pirates coach Steve Tait