Trial by Fire; The Story of Head Coach Shawn Manfredo
Then Associate Head Coach Shawn Manfredo watches on during a bullpen session while coaching at UMass Dartmouth.
“Schools were canceling games while we were on our Florida trip, you know, for spring break. And we got word our season was over while we were, you know, hundreds of miles away in Florida. So, I kind of had my first head coaching stop was trial by fire,”
In Cape Cod Baseball much is often made of the players who move on to bigger and brighter things after spending a summer with one of the 10 teams. Less is made of coaches who do the same. The latest prime example of this is former Harbor Hawks assistant coach Shawn Manfredo, who just completed his first real season as the head coach of the Fitchburg State Falcons.
In 2015 Manfredo’s work as Associate Head Coach at UMass Dartmouth caught the attention of Harbor Hawks Head Coach Chad Gassman who invited Manfredo to join his staff as the team’s bullpen coach for the 2015 season. This decision resulted in one of the best Hyannis pitching staffs in recent memory featuring four starters – Aaron Civale, Dakota Hudson, Michael King, and Devin Smeltzer – who would go on to start and make impacts in the Majors as well as several others who finished in the top five in Wins, Strikeouts, and ERA. This rotations success would set the team up for a long postseason run highlighted by sweeping both Cotuit and Bourne in route to the franchise’s first Championship Series appearance since 2000.
Fitchburg State Head Coach Shawn Manfredo
Manfredo’s tutelage would continue to lead to successful pitchers both on the Cape and in his full-time job at UMass Dartmouth as his staff’s would break the school’s record for lowest ERA on several occasions and lead their conference in ERA in 2016 and 2018. This success was highlighted by pitchers Matt Cronin, Nick Fuller, and Sean Callahan who have all moved on to pitch professionally ,with Cronin being named 1st Team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association and D3Baseball.com.
In 2020 Manfredo’s streak of excellence landed him the Head Coach position at Fitchburg State where he was tasked with turning around a team that had only three winning seasons since 2007. He was just setting into the job in March 2020 and preparing to take on a team where he had no hand in the recruitment when all of a sudden, the world turned on its head.
“Schools were canceling games while we were on our Florida trip, you know, for spring break. And we got word our season was over while we were, you know, hundreds of miles away in Florida. So, I kind of had my first head coaching stop was trial by fire,” he said when interviewed. Despite the abruptness of the season being cancelled, Manfredo sees this as a great example of the communication between himself and the school’s Athletic Director Matthew Burke.
Manfredo explains that when schools and conferences made the decision to cancel their seasons often times players would find out through twitter and social media, “You're in a game and parents are coming into the dugout and saying to these other teams, hey, you know, your conference just canceled your season or whatever. . . We were fortunate enough where our Athletic Director was on the phone with me every day just preparing me. And as bad as it was, I was the one who got to deliver the message to the kids that was it. They didn't read about it online or anything. So even though it was terrible news and tough to deliver, I'm glad it worked out that way.”
Coach Manfredo (Left), Ron Polk (Center), and Head Coach Chad Gassman,(Right) look at a diagram during a game as Angels 2016 First Round Draft Pick Matt Thaiss looks on.
After the shortened season in 2020 Manfredo and his coaching staff buckled down for a challenging 2021 season without the ability to recruit new players and a roster of just 26. “We're holding internal open tryouts really honestly. Like we weren't scouring campus, but we were throwing bullpens and practice with kids who didn't pitch in high school.” Manfredo tried just about every player at every position, “just because, you know, you had been playing outfield under previous coaching regime, or you'd been playing shortstop or you been a catcher, you've been a pitcher, we kind of threw that out the window and we said, let's try, let's work. Let's try out everybody at every position and really see what we have.”
This included taking one player who was a catcher and had never pitched before and seeing how he performed on the mound.
So how did that end up? In a conference regular season Championship and MASCAC Coach of the Year honors for Shawn Manfredo. He attributes the team’s success to the players, “they did whatever they were asked, and we wound up going on a tear.” And that catcher who had never pitched before? Signed to pitch in the Futures Collegiate League. His name is Brad Keefe and he put out a fire when playing in the New York Collegiate League but that’s a story all on its own.
Manfredo (Center) looks on with two of his pitchers in 2018.
Manfredo says a lot of his personal success comes from what he learned in the Cape League. “I learned so much that you take it back every fall, you know, go back and teach something new. And they'd say, ‘Hey, where'd you learn that?’ The Cape League.”
“I learned it from not just the coaches, but the players, you have the opportunity to text message a big leaguer or a minor leaguer or an SEC pitcher and say, ‘hey, what do you guys got that's new down there? What are you working on?’ And [being able to] take a little bit from everybody has really advanced my career and my ability to teach as a coach. And we wouldn’t have been able to turn things around and win the regular season anyway, we fell a little short in the tournament, and did the things we did last year without the things we learned with Hyannis.”
He also said that given the right opportunity he would love to come back and spend another summer on Cape. With a swath of new coaches coming into the league in the last few years and his trial by fire proving remarkably successful, it is only a matter of time until Manfredo earns the chance to lead a Cape League team of his own.
