After 10 years spent around softball diamonds, Nick Armeni is taking on a bit of a different role in the game. No longer a player, he will take over as the softball coach at Conneaut.
It’s a role he had never really thought about taking on.
“It’s funny because a lot of people have asked me that,” Armeni, the son of Bernie and Penny Armeni, said. “In 2002, I coached freshmen baseball. Since then, I haven’t done anything with baseball. I’ve been playing softball myself the last 10 years, but it’s been piquing my interest.”
Last spring, the seed was planted in the 34-year-old Armeni’s mind.
“Mary Holdson, who is the JV coach and was the varsity coach a few years ago, asked me if I’d ever be interested in coaching,” Armeni said. “I said I’d never thought about it, but she told me I should think about it. At the time, Matt Rothbauer wasn’t coaching and Joel Taylor, who was the AD, had taken over. I didn’t know if anybody was interested.
“I put a letter of interest in, with my wife Megan’s blessing to do it.”
A science teacher at Conneaut Middle School for 11 years, Armeni will now be a gym teacher for grades 3-5.
Armeni takes over a team that played for the DIvision II district championship last spring and is poised to make another run this year.
“When I got the news, I was super excited,” he said. “I’ve been looking at the schedule thinking about what we could do with it this next year. The team I inherited from Joel and Matt is a good one. They did a great job.
“It’s not too early to start doing stuff for the girls.”
Having been an assistant coach in a myriad of different sports through the years, Armeni believed it was time to take a program of his own.
“I had a baseball career at Conneaut and (Youngstown State), I helped coach my younger brother (Frank’s) team in Little League, I spent two years with (Tony and Mike) Nappi at Lakeside. That’s been my experience.
“I had this whole thing that I was not taking over a program until I was ready in my personal life and coaching-wise I could do the job.”
Coaching girls will be somewhat new to Armeni.
“I coached eighth-grade volleyball last year,” he said. “That was the first time I coached girls. I’ve been coaching boys for the last five or six years. I’ve had just about all of the girls in class, so I know them all.
“It helps that they know me and I know them.”
Armeni will take his baseball knowledge and try and develop it into softball knowledge.
“I will definitely have to adapt,” he said. “A lot of things are similar and a lot is different. That’s part of my job. I will contact people and have them help me figure out what to do.
“My big concern is pitching. Hopefully I can get people to come out and help me. I will be a sponge and learn as much as I can.”
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