{"id":2441865,"date":"2019-03-18T18:04:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T00:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=301908"},"modified":"2019-03-18T18:04:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T00:04:28","slug":"baseballs-a-family-affair-for-roaring-fork-high-school-coaching-duo-howard-and-marty-madsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/baseballs-a-family-affair-for-roaring-fork-high-school-coaching-duo-howard-and-marty-madsen\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball\u2019s a family affair for Roaring Fork High School coaching duo Howard and Marty Madsen"},"content":{"rendered":"
Howard and son Marty Madsen in the home team dugout at Ron Patch Memorial Field near Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale.<\/strong>
SunProfMadsens-GPI-031719<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Howard Madsen just can\u2019t quit the game.<\/p>\n

With 701 wins, 25 district championships, 11 regional titles, four state finals appearances and a 2002 Hall of Fame credential in the Michigan High School Athletic Association as a baseball coach at Rogers City High School, Madsen remains passionate about America\u2019s pasttime in retirement.<\/p>\n

Relationships, as well as the process of getting ready to play baseball, right down to prepping the field, continue to pull Madsen back in.<\/p>\n

Baseball is a big thing in the Madsen family. That\u2019s why, for the past five years, Howard has made the 1,500-mile trip from Northern Michigan to Carbondale every spring to help his oldest son, Marty, coach the Roaring Fork Rams\u2019 baseball program.<\/p>\n

AN INVITATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following retirement from teaching and coaching at Rogers City in 2011, Howard found himself missing the game and wanting to give back to the sport that gave him so much.<\/p>\n

At the time of the elder Madsen\u2019s retirement, Marty landed the Roaring Fork head coaching job. Howard went into umpiring for a year following retirement and realized it wasn\u2019t for him, saying it was like \u201cgoing to the dark side.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years later, Marty asked his father if he wanted to come out to Carbondale and help him coach the Rams and build a program. It\u2019s been that way for the past five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just wasn\u2019t the same,\u201d Howard said during a recent Roaring Fork practice indoors, due to the lingering winter weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was still around the game, but I really missed coaching. Marty and I later talked about it and he said, \u2018I could really use some help out here,\u2019 and I said, \u2018You don\u2019t have to ask me twice, son!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard and his wife rent a house in Glenwood Springs for three months each year after they make the trip out, allowing Howard to not only stay around the game as a coach, but he also gets to see family while out here.<\/p>\n

GLORY DAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marty and the \u201cOld Man,\u201d as they go by in the dugout, are as much of a formidable pair on the field as coaches today as they once were as coach and player during Marty\u2019s high school days.<\/p>\n

Marty served as a bat boy for his dad growing up, before playing for him at Rogers City High School in the early 1990s. He then headed to Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, to play baseball at the Division I level.<\/p>\n

Growing up with a father who coached the game Marty grew to love helped push him in the coaching direction himself. Now, he\u2019s trying to build a powerful program like his dad did for 30 years in Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in a dugout and my brother grew up in a dugout,\u201d Marty said with a chuckle. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty much what we\u2019ve know all our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teenagers are used to their dads telling them what to do, anyway, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty cool for him to see me come full circle as a ball player from playing under him, going to play D-1, to now running my own program,\u201d Marty said. \u201cHe\u2019s been a tremendous help just in terms of bringing in the knowledge he has and passing that onto not only me, but the kids, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

When his dad tells stories about his time in baseball, the players quiet down and listen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to see. It\u2019s been a lot of fun to have him around, and he\u2019s really enjoying it himself,\u201d Marty said.<\/p>\n

OCCASIONAL CLASHES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fathers and sons can butt heads when it comes to pretty much anything. Put them into a competitive environment like baseball where one has the career credentials that Howard has and the experience that Marty has at his post, and it\u2019s understandable that the two baseball men could clash when it comes to decision making or in-game strategy.<\/p>\n

That has happened a few times between the two, but Marty says his dad knows how much experience Marty has on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows my level of knowledge about the game and how long I\u2019ve been around this sport,\u201d Marty said. \u201cWe\u2019ll discuss things for sure, and he\u2019s helped me out quite a bit, but he\u2019s not one to question things I do. We have a great working relationship, and it\u2019s really been that way since I played under him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any disagreements aside, \u201che likes to pick my brain, and I like to pick his brain,\u201d Howard said. \u201cWe get along great.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that being able to pass on the passion for baseball to Marty and his players is important. And he has 15 other former players coaching baseball around the country.<\/p>\n

Marty said having his dad around has pushed him to be a better man every day, while also trying to help the Rams develop good, young men within the program.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL MEMORIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part of that great working relationship has to do with the ability to leave the game between the lines and never take it home with them. It\u2019s a rule Howard\u2019s wife established during his coaching days, allowing the Madsen family to unplug from baseball for a bit.<\/p>\n

However, baseball has always been there for the Madsens, whether it\u2019s coaching or rooting on the Detroit Tigers.<\/p>\n

One of Marty\u2019s best baseball memories with his dad dates back to 1985 when Howard was named the Coach of the Year, getting a chance to coach the East versus West All-Star Game at Old Tigers Stadium in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Seeing his dad in the same dugout that Sparky Anderson, Alan Trammell, Jack Morris and Kirk Gibson shared that year was one thing. But Marty \u2014 the bat boy for his dad\u2019s All-Star team \u2014 was awed when he stepped into the batter\u2019s box to pick up a bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 8 years old and I remember running out to grab a bat at the same plate that Mickey Mantle stood at, and Lou Gehrig stood at, and Ty Cobb slid into,\u201d Marty said. \u201cIt was something special, and I\u2019m glad I got to share that with my dad as a fan of baseball and as a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Madsen duo hopes to continue making more baseball memories as the Roaring Fork program continues to develop on the Western Slope. With baseball comes a family environment, considering the amount of time a baseball team spends with one another during the leadup to the season, as well as the season itself.<\/p>\n

The relationships developed are what keeps Howard coming back to the game he loves. And, as long as he stays healthy, Howard said he plans on making the trip for many years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as I don\u2019t get fired, that is,\u201d Howard chuckled.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Howard and son Marty Madsen in the home team dugout at Ron Patch Memorial Field near Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale.SunProfMadsens-GPI-031719 Howard Madsen just can\u2019t quit the game. With 701 wins, 25 district championships, 11 regional titles, four state finals appearances and a 2002 Hall of Fame credential in the Michigan High School Athletic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2441865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 13:10:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2441865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2441865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2441865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2441865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}