Olathe East Hawks Baseball
Subtitle
Head Coach - Blake Iles
Coach Blake Iles is from Marysville, KS where he graduated high school and played baseball and basketball. Coach Iles was a three-year letterman in baseball and two-year letterman in basketball. Coach Iles then played one season at Dana College in Blair, NE before finishing his education at Fort Hays State University. Coach Iles began his coaching career in 2006 throughout multiple levels ranging from the varsity assistant at Marysville High School, assistant at Olathe Northwest, and for the KC Bullets Baseball Club serving as the head coach for the 16U program. Coach Iles then moved on to coaching the Kansas City Royals Scout team where he was the manager of the 17U Scout Team.
His coaching statement is: “I coach to inspire young men to be selfless teammates, committed to improving each day, displaying mental toughness, and knowing the importance of The W.I.N.” Coach values building relationships with his players and not only teaching the game of baseball, but the values of becoming a better young man, future husband, father, and member of society. “The W.I.N.” stands for “What’s Important Now”, constantly reminding his players there are much bigger things than baseball and teaching his players how to learn from every situation they are faced with.
Coach Iles is married to his beautiful wife Lindsey, who grew up and graduated from Olathe North. Lindsey an RN. They have 2 young children, Camden and Braden, who love playing sports themselves.
Coach Droescher is from Pierce, NE where he graduated from high school and played football, basketball and track. He also participated in his favorite sport, baseball (not a high school program), in the summers in the area Junior Legion program. Coach Droescher played football for four years at the University of South Dakota. Coach Droescher began his baseball coaching career at the youth level with his three sons, Brock, Tanner and Cole. Fifteen years later he has coached ages ranging from five to 16.
Coach Droescher’s passion is player development. A big part of that process is teaching players what it takes to be winners. He believes that, of all sports, baseball most closely imitates life outside of sports due to the relatively slow pace and amount of failure that is involved. Baseball can teach so many life lessons. Learning to be successful in baseball leads to habits that result in success off the field as well. Coach Droescher is a life-long learner and spends countless hours evaluating his approach to the game.
Assistant Head Coach- Eric Harrington
Coach Eric Harrington began his career with the Olathe East baseball program in 2019. A native of Port Huron, Michigan Coach Harrington will be working as the Outfield Coordinator this season after working as an Assistant Infield Coordinator last season. This season he will also be calling the shots for the C-team as their game day head coach after serving the same duty last year as well as doing the same for the D-team.
During his playing days, Coach Harrington played at Port Huron Northern High School where he earned all-district and all-league honors his senior season. After graduation he played at St. Clair County Community College for one official season after battling injuries. There he posted a batting average of .297 before hanging up the cleats to just focus on school.
After earning a B.A.A. from Central Michigan University he attended graduate school at Fort Hays State University working as the Sports Information Director Graduate Assistant from 2015-2017. While at FHSU Coach Harrington was the primary media contacts for the men’s and women’s soccer, baseball, softball, and wrestling programs his final year. Working on his third degree, he will be student teaching during the 2019 season in hopes to become a teacher the following year.
Also, while at Fort Hays State he met his now wife Amanda who was a four-year starter on the FHSU softball team. Amanda is also a coach herself as she is the head JV coach for the Olathe East softball program and the head varsity coach for the Shawnee Mission North gymnastics team.
Assistant Head Coach - Quintin Dougherty
Assistant Head Coach - DJ Crocker
Coach Crocker is from Olathe, KS he graduated from Olathe South High School and played baseball and soccer. He also played baseball two years in college one at Mount Vernon Nazarene University and one at MidAmerica Nazarene University. While at Mid America he also kicked for the football team for one year. Coach Crocker has been doing private lessons and coaching baseball at the youth level for six years. Ages ranging from 5 to 14.
Baseball has been such an important part of his life and he is excited to be a part of a great program. While he enjoyed playing all positions on the diamond catching has always been his passion. The view from behind the plate has helped Coach Crocker not only with his coaching but his everyday life. As a coach he is passionate about continuous learning, leadership, and player development. Baseball has meant so much to him and he is excited to ignite the same love for the game in his players.
Coach Crocker is married to his beautiful wife Liz, who also grew up in Olathe and graduated from Olathe South where they met. Liz is a teacher and dance team coach in the Olathe School District. They have two children, Sabina and Charlie. Charlie loves all sports of any kind and his daughter Sabina shares her mom’s passion for competitive dance.
Assistant Head Coach - Patrick Adkins
Coach Adkins is from Wayne, WV. He graduated at Wayne High where he played baseball, football and basketball. He also played two years of baseball at Potomac State College. There he helped the Catamounts reach two JUCO College World Series appearances. He finished his baseball career at West Virginia State University where he earned his two degrees in Health Science and Health Education.
Coach Adkins moved to Olathe, KS in 2013 and joined the coaching staff of Shawnee Mission East. He was a part of the 2016 state champion team. After four years, he went to coach for Shawnee Mission West. There he was the Varsity Pitching coach for 4 years. Last year, he was the pitching coach at Olathe North. Coach Adkins coaches for Between the Lines Academy in the summers and fall.
He believes that student athletes can become leaders in the community through hard work and effort. His main goal is to impact his players and teach them to be better people, so they can help others around them thrive daily. He wants to instill hard work in their lives and create patience when confronted with difficult obstacles.
Coach Adkins is married to Amanda Adkins who is also a teacher in the Olathe District at Frontier Trail Middle School. She is a volleyball coach at Frontier Trail Middle. He has two children, Abigail and Nolan. Abigail is into competitive dance and Nolan seems to enjoy being dare devil.