Mar 22, 2022 3 min read

It might have taken 11 years, but Dave Bates corrected a wrong turn in his life.

And it nearly didn’t happen.

Bates made his mark as head baseball coach at Carmichaels by winning three WPIAL championships (2003, 2005 and 2008) and making it to the WPIAL finals five times in seven years.

Then he walked away, chasing an administrative post at Carmichaels. And because of that, he had to give up coaching baseball.

“I never wanted to leave it,” said Bates of coaching baseball. “I quit coaching to become a principal and that was the worst mistake I ever made.”

Let’s be clear. Bates didn’t hate the people he worked with. He just loved the satisfaction that coaching baseball brought him more. And he couldn’t see it because of the clutter in his head.

Throughout his 50 years of life, Bates would be a teacher, administrator, author, municipal police officer and the hunter safety instructor and mentor with the Pennsylvania Game Commissioner. Oh yes, did we mention that he recently opened a shooting school?

Now add baseball coach at Mapletown to that resume. Bates replaces Dom DeCarlo, who resigned.

Who would have thought baseball would have such a magnetic pull that Bates would be helpless to try to resist. He brought along to Mapletown assistant coach carl “Red” Kolar, and former Mapletown head coach Jay Donley will be there to help as will former Carmichaels standout Jeff Lapkowicz.

“I knew Dom DeCarlo. I was Jay Donley’s assistant for a year,” said Bates. “I was at a softball championship and we were sitting around after the game and he said, ‘You know, the Mapletown job is coming open.’ He was saying it more as a joke. And I said, ‘Would you be interested in being my assistant?’

“So I went over to apply and the rest is history.”

The mistake Bates made so long ago – 11 years – might now be put to rest.

“I knew nothing about them other than they had fallen on pretty hard times,” Bates said of Mapletown. “It’s a program for the making. Everything right now is an unknown. I never saw these boys on the field. We have some kids who can hit the ball. We have some kids who can play a little defense. Pitching will be a question mark. We don’t know what we have across the board. It’s going to be a surprise.”

The Maples were 2-8 in Section 2-A and 2-10 overall last year. They open the season Friday at Turkeyfoot then have a home game Monday against Carmichaels.

“I am more than excited,” said Bates. “I just came out of the dugout, cleaning it out and building dugout furniture and pitching mounds. It’s been everything I remember about loving the game.”