BIANCO BALL: A FAMILY AFFAIR
By Joe Maxwell
Mike Bianco’s favorite part of the baseball season has arrived. After months of hard work and coaching, the Ole Miss Rebels’ head baseball coach unfolds his lawn chair by the outfield foul line where he can be anonymous.
From there … Mike watches.
He does not strategize. He calls no signals. He offers umpires no advice.With his wide-brim straw hat casting a shadow over his face, Mike Bianco
might as well be watching a cork bob in a bream hole.
“There is nothing he loves more,” says his wife of 16 years, Camie Bianco.
Mike Bianco, the father, is watching one of his four sons play baseball.
He and Camie have an infield’s-worth of boys: Michael, 12; Ben, 9; Drew,
8; and Sam, 7. (And don’t forget Catherine, 4!)
Camie “is probably more passionate in the regard that she is much more vocal at the games,” he observes. “I like to just go and sit there in my lawn chair.”
Admits Camie, “I get so nervous when the Rebels are playing that I can’t
get nervous watching my boys. “
BASEBALL BOND
Baseball brought Mike and her together and brought them to Oxford. They
met in 1987 at LSU, where Mike played baseball on a World Series-level
team while Camie was an athletic trainer.
After LSU, Mike fiddled with financial advising, but Camie saw that he
was “miserable,” she says. “I sort of take credit for him becoming a
baseball coach,” she laughs. “I said, ‘Why don’t you try to be a coach?’”
Mike became a graduate assistant at Northwestern State University while
Camie finished her masters in education. In 1992 they married and LSU
head baseball coach Skip Bertman hired Mike as an assistant.
Five years later, Mike took the head coaching job at McNeese State; in
2001, he became the head baseball coach at Ole Miss, a place they
vocally profess to love. Says Camie. “It has so many great things to
offer culturally. It’s such a neat, neat place to raise kids. … And
everywhere you go you see somebody you know.”
The town’s tiny St. John’s Catholic Church is vital in their life, says
Camie: “Our faith is a big part of who we are. We are very involved. It
doesn’t matter if the Rebels win or lose, we still have our faith and
there is no pressure..”
COACHING THEM UP
Bianco teams have won at least 35 games in each of his eight seasons and
have had 15 players honored as All-Americans between 2001 and 2007. More
than 30 Rebel players have been drafted by Major League Baseball.
This season’s team was as highly touted as any. The 2008 Rebel team
incurred injuries and missed some early opportunities, but at press time
last week, the team had rallied to the SEC championship game, losing,
ironically, to red-hot LSU. The Rebels were scheduled for NCAA regional
tournament play at the University of Miami.
Sooner or later, however, every season must end. Camie says it’s hard
saying goodbye to the parents of seniors. Many have meant a lot to the
Biancos’ sons, who roam Swayze Field at Ole Miss’s home games. “As a college baseball coach,” says Mike, “the one negative is I am not
at home as much as I would like to be able to spend time with the
family. To be able to have them come to the field and spend time with
them and be a part of things is special.”
The Bianco boys warm up and joke with players, who “are just fantastic
with my kids,” says Camie. “And I love that.”
Camie watches the Rebel players’ parents “going through the season with
their sons.” It has taught her about handling her own sons’ ups and
downs and about being a sports mom. “It’s been interesting to watch the
parents with Little League and Dizzy Dean and USSSA,” she says. “… They
just live it with the kids. I think sometimes the parents take it harder
than the kids.”
“When I watch them play,” adds Mike, “I try to be their dad and not the
coach. When they do something well, I’m excited and proud; when they
don’t do something so well, I feel for them just like any parent would.”
He gives them advice, but he tries “to do it in a manner that is easier
to accept” and he tries “not to do it when they are on the field.”
Mike finds parallels between coaching and being a father. “Much like a
parent, a coach wants his player to give his best effort, be responsible
and develop the characteristics that every young man and woman should
learn. I really believe that’s why we have intercollegiate athletics.
It’s to teach life lessons … that can’t be learned in class. They teach
how to handle adversity and work.”
Mike believes “there is no better sport for that than baseball.” And perhaps that’s why baseball might actually “be tougher on parents,” he says.“Your child is in the spotlight regardless of whether you want them there or not. They are going to either get the hit or strike out. The ball is going to be hit to your child and they can’t hide. They make the play or they don’t. It’s tough for the kid and it’s tough for the parent. But, it teaches how to handle pressure and adversity. It teaches that sometimes you can work hard and do everything right and you still fail–and that’s okay.”
LEARNING LESSONS
Mike Bianco collected his share of great memories playing ball and he
hopes his children will, too. He recalls catching the final out to win
the St. Petersburg (Florida) City Championship at age 9; winning the
district senior Little League championship at 15; and winning the
American Legion state championship at 18.
“And there were so many games in between,” he adds. “That’s the neat
thing about athletics. Sometimes you can’t remember where you put the
keys, but you can close your eyes and remember something so vividly that
you are right there in that moment again.”
For instance, two years ago …
Michael’s Oxford All Star team was wearing their replica Rebel uniforms
playing in the Dizzy Dean state championship game in Pontotoc, Mississippi.
The 10-year-old Rebel team was in the field, holding a slim lead in the
bottom of the last inning.
Mike sat in his lawn chair on the 1st-base line behind a cyclone fence,
his straw hat useless in the 98-degree heat. Oxford faced the top of a
Jackson team’s batting order with runners in scoring position
A Jackson player hit a line-drive to Oxford’s diving shortstop, who
batted it to the ground with his glove. He popped up, grabbed the loose
ball, and roped a throw to 1st base.
Game over. Rebels win.
Mike Bianco cheered. He loves it when the Rebels win.
Later, Mike told an Oxford coach it was the best youth baseball game
he’d seen in a long, long time.
Was that the coach or the father in Mike talking?
After all, a spunky 10-year-old shortstop named Michael Bianco had just
saved the game. SS
Click here to comment on this article.