A Winning Team

Coaches Michael Kernan, Barb Balestrino

have guided Ursuline’s softball team

to six regionals in eight seasons

By Tom Williams

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

The Ursuline High softball

team has Shawn Iman (Class of 2002) to thank for this year’s state tournament appearance.

Eight years ago, the Youngstown school was looking for a softball coach and Iman, one of the players, asked her uncle, Michael Kernan, if he was interested.

Kernan, who had played baseball, football and basketball at Chaney and football at Hiram College, had experience coaching youth basketball.

“I had a goal to someday coach my daughter, so I said I’d give it a shot,” Kernan said.

He met with Ursuline athletic director Jim Maughan and was offered the job with one stipulation — ask Barb Nick Balestrino if she was interested in assisting.

Balestrino, who had played for Ursuline and Youngstown State, said yes.

“Having her on board is key to our success,” Kernan said of Balestrino. “We’re on each other’s same page on how we run the team and decisions we make.

“I bounce a lot of stuff off of her,” Kernan said. “We keep each other straight. In a female environment, having a female coach helps.”

The Kernan/Balestrino team clicked almost immediately.

“That first year, it was tough putting together a team that really didn’t have much guidance,” Balestrino said. “We barely had enough kids on the team — 11 or 12.

“We took our poundings at the beginning of the year, but by the end we won district,” Balestrino said. “Mike and I felt then that we could do this.”

Ursuline’s regional appearance in 2002 was the first of six over the next eight seasons.

Last Saturday, the Irish (26-5) defeated West Salem Northwestern, 3-2 in nine innings, to earn the school’s first trip to state.

Friday at 12:30 p.m., Ursuline will play Magnolia Sandy Valley (24-5) in the Division III state semifinals at Akron’s Firestone Park.

“Coach has always had the passion and he’s instilled a lot of it inside of us,” senior outfielder Rebecca Hartz said of Kernan. “I think it’s really paying off.”

Hartz said Kernan is anything but softspoken when the game is on.

“There is plenty of yelling,” Hartz said with a laugh. “He always tells us that if he yells, it’s only because he’s watching out for us and he wants us to do well.

“And that when he stops yelling, that means he’s stopped caring,” Hartz said. “I don’t think he’ll ever stop yelling.”

Second baseman Miranda Carkido, Ursuline’s other senior, says Kernan’s words sometimes challenge them.

“Sometimes, he will say some stuff and ... we don’t know what he wants from us,” Carkido said. “But he knows what he’s talking about ... and he’s done really well coaching our team.

“If we make a lot of mistakes or don’t play to our potential, sometimes he yells because he wants us to be the best we can be,” Carkido said. “We all love Barb. She keeps everyone on the team calm and relaxed.”

Hartz said, “She knows a lot about the game. She is his right-hand woman.”

Junior shortstop Anna Donko said, “He pushes us to work our hardest as does Barb.”

Kernan’s sense of humor is a target.

“He has these [bad] horse jokes because we had these shirts made that say ‘Pony Up,’ ” Donko said. “He has an obsession with horses.”

Donko added that the attempts at humor are “relaxing for us. He gives us a little joke and we play a little more loose.”

Sometimes Kernan’s emotions dominate.

“After our regional final game, he really couldn’t talk,” Carkido said. “He said, ‘I don’t know what to say, I’m so happy. I’m tearing up — that’s why my sunglasses are still on.’ He was so excited for us. We were all like ‘aw.’ ”

Balestrino, who is an appraiser for the Mahoning County Auditor’s office, would make a fine head coach but says it’s unlikely.

“With my job’s time constraints, I know I can never be a head coach so I am perfectly happy where I am at,” Balestrino said. “The kids make fun of us sometimes [because of] our brother-sister relationship.

“A lot of people ask how come I don’t get the wrath of Mike. I say I’ve been here eight years and I’m smart enough to ... know what he wants, what he expects.

“We just work really well together. We’re alike in a lot of ways but we have that same competitive inside. We want to push the kids, we want to see how good they can be.”

Kernan said, “My goal was to coach my daughter and now she’s on the team this year,” Kernan said.

Chelsea Kernan is a junior.

“When you look at how it all happened ... you kind of wonder sometimes who’s guiding everyone in the right directions,” Kernan said. “Here we are today with my daughter on the team in a position to compete for a state championship.

“It just almost seems like the pieces are coming together in a magical way.”

williams@vindy.com