SE: Family Drives Pete Hughes to Coaching Success, Take Over K-State Baseball Program
Jun 13, 2018 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
As Pete Hughes stood at the podium in the Vanier Family Football Complex making his first appearance as K-State's 21sthead baseball coach, he began to list off the reasons he wanted the job.
Number one was athletics director Gene Taylor, who Hughes applauded for "his value system, his leadership and his track record." Number two was executive associate AD Casey Scott, the program's sport administrator who Hughes said he admired for his "experience and vision of the baseball program."
"I did enough research on the leadership of this athletic department, and the more and more I spent time with them, the more and more I wanted to work for Gene Taylor and Casey Scott," Hughes said in an interview with K-State Sports Extra. "(Taylor is) a coach's AD. That's a real guy. I want to be around good people. I always have. Good people make you better and inspire you to higher level. Even though I'm 50 years old, I'm still looking for that. That's what drew me here."
The bigger reasons, or at least the ones that have driven him his entire 20-plus year coaching career, were sitting to his right in the front row, however. His wife, Debby, and their five children: Thomas, Hal, Dominic, Grace and P.J.
"Everything I do in my life is around my five kids and my wife, and to be part of a college community that believes in those (family) ideals… we'll get the baseball part of it right, but you only get one crack at raising your family, being around your family and living your life the right way," he said. "Baseball, we'll get it right. I've always gotten it right. But you have to be around the right people and the right people in your life have to be with you in the right situation, and to me, that was everything K-State represented."
For Hughes, his family has always driven his career decisions.
A 1990 graduate of Davidson College, Hughes played third base for the baseball team and quarterback for the football team. He went undrafted in both sports.
Coaching filled the competitive void in his life.
"I just wanted to work somewhere, coach a sport and be able to raise a family and support a family," he said. "That was one of my goals going in and is still one of my goals today."
Hughes started his coaching career at Hamilton College in New York, serving as an assistant football and baseball coach for two years. He then moved to Northeastern in his hometown in Boston, Massachusetts, where at 24 years old his first full-time job in Division I athletics was as an assistant for the football team. He was an assistant for the baseball team as well.
In his six years at Northeastern, Hughes coached with Doug Marrone and Joe Philbin, now the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, respectively. He also recruited against Chip Kelly, now UCLA's head coach.
"I was on a pretty fast track," Hughes said of his coaching trajectory as a football coach, "but I also knew I wanted to have a big family."
Hughes also wanted to be a head coach. Football, he felt, would hinder his ability to properly take care of a big family while, someday, leading a program.
Baseball offered more stability in his mind, so much so that in 1997 he left his full-time Division I football job to be the head baseball coach at Trinity University, a Division III school in San Antonio, Texas.
"Everybody was like, 'What are you doing?'" Hughes recalled. "But I kind of got on the baseball track there."
Hughes, now with more than 650 wins to his name, ascended quickly in college baseball.
In 1999, he returned to his hometown to become Boston College's head coach. The program, which recorded 13 wins a year on average in the 35 seasons before he arrived, averaged 31 in the eight years he was there.
The downside?
"I think the greatest thing you can get out of this profession is raising your kids on a college campus in a college community, but at Boston College I couldn't do that," Hughes said. "With five kids and my salary, I had to live almost an hour away from the campus, so my kids were never with me. I could never take them to a random hoop game, or football games were a chore, and my wife couldn't come to baseball games because there was traffic and the kids were sleeping in the minivan. It was just a mess."
Hughes believed his family deserved better.
So when Virginia Tech called in 2006, Hughes saw a college town where his family could live close to campus more than the daunting challenge of turning around a program that went 4-25 in the ACC the year before.
"It was not a good situation and we ran there just so we could raise our family in a better situation," Hughes said. "I think we did a really good job with that program."
Hughes led Virginia Tech to five straight 30-win seasons, including a pair of 40-win campaigns that culminated with berths in the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and 2013.
Still, when a job offer came from another Power Five school in a bigger city, Hughes used the situation to help his family. He said he had Virginia Tech restructure his contract to funnel some of his bonus money into a 529 plan, essentially a tax-friendly college savings fund, for all of his children.
"I remember telling my wife that day I did that on my computer, I said this is the greatest day of my coaching career. She goes, 'What are you talking about?' I said, 'I just paid for our kids' education and I coach baseball for a living,'" Hughes said. "That's why I got into it. It's little moments like that."
Tuesday, June 12, 2018, was another one of those moments, although it wasn't so little.
On this day, he put on a K-State jersey, the white version with purple pinstripes. The number 19 sewn on it was not random, nor was it the number he wore as a player.
He wears it for his mother, who was born on September 19 and died at an early age. The number inspired him to start his 19 Ways Foundation. He created the foundation at Virginia Tech to honor his mother, who worked at a nursing home during her life.
"She never stopped helping people, and that carried over to me," Hughes, who implemented the 19 Ways Foundation during his four seasons at Oklahoma (2014-17) and plans to bring it to K-State, said of his mother. "That's why I wear 19. We do 19 things in the community as a team to help an individual or an organization out and help make their life a little bit better."
Hughes spent this past season as a volunteer assistant coach at Georgia, which hosted an NCAA Regional and lost in the championship game. He said he's extremely grateful for the opportunity, and even more thankful for the sacrifices made by his family, most of whom stayed in Norman, Oklahoma, while he was in Georgia.
On June 12, for the first time since Christmas, they were all together again — one family joining an athletic department built on the same word. It's a day Hughes said they won't soon forget.
"Today is always going to be remembered as a great day in our household because today we instantly become members of a tremendous college community," Hughes said. "June 12 will be a great day because instantly we become part of a nationally renowned academic institution. June 12 is going to be a great day in our family because we've joined an athletic department that wins, that has a strong tradition and a fanatical following. It's an absolute honor to be the head baseball coach at Kansas State."
As Pete Hughes stood at the podium in the Vanier Family Football Complex making his first appearance as K-State's 21sthead baseball coach, he began to list off the reasons he wanted the job.
Number one was athletics director Gene Taylor, who Hughes applauded for "his value system, his leadership and his track record." Number two was executive associate AD Casey Scott, the program's sport administrator who Hughes said he admired for his "experience and vision of the baseball program."
"I did enough research on the leadership of this athletic department, and the more and more I spent time with them, the more and more I wanted to work for Gene Taylor and Casey Scott," Hughes said in an interview with K-State Sports Extra. "(Taylor is) a coach's AD. That's a real guy. I want to be around good people. I always have. Good people make you better and inspire you to higher level. Even though I'm 50 years old, I'm still looking for that. That's what drew me here."
The bigger reasons, or at least the ones that have driven him his entire 20-plus year coaching career, were sitting to his right in the front row, however. His wife, Debby, and their five children: Thomas, Hal, Dominic, Grace and P.J.
"Everything I do in my life is around my five kids and my wife, and to be part of a college community that believes in those (family) ideals… we'll get the baseball part of it right, but you only get one crack at raising your family, being around your family and living your life the right way," he said. "Baseball, we'll get it right. I've always gotten it right. But you have to be around the right people and the right people in your life have to be with you in the right situation, and to me, that was everything K-State represented."
For Hughes, his family has always driven his career decisions.
A 1990 graduate of Davidson College, Hughes played third base for the baseball team and quarterback for the football team. He went undrafted in both sports.
Coaching filled the competitive void in his life.
"I just wanted to work somewhere, coach a sport and be able to raise a family and support a family," he said. "That was one of my goals going in and is still one of my goals today."
Hughes started his coaching career at Hamilton College in New York, serving as an assistant football and baseball coach for two years. He then moved to Northeastern in his hometown in Boston, Massachusetts, where at 24 years old his first full-time job in Division I athletics was as an assistant for the football team. He was an assistant for the baseball team as well.
In his six years at Northeastern, Hughes coached with Doug Marrone and Joe Philbin, now the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, respectively. He also recruited against Chip Kelly, now UCLA's head coach.
"I was on a pretty fast track," Hughes said of his coaching trajectory as a football coach, "but I also knew I wanted to have a big family."
Hughes also wanted to be a head coach. Football, he felt, would hinder his ability to properly take care of a big family while, someday, leading a program.
Baseball offered more stability in his mind, so much so that in 1997 he left his full-time Division I football job to be the head baseball coach at Trinity University, a Division III school in San Antonio, Texas.
"Everybody was like, 'What are you doing?'" Hughes recalled. "But I kind of got on the baseball track there."
Hughes, now with more than 650 wins to his name, ascended quickly in college baseball.
In 1999, he returned to his hometown to become Boston College's head coach. The program, which recorded 13 wins a year on average in the 35 seasons before he arrived, averaged 31 in the eight years he was there.
The downside?
"I think the greatest thing you can get out of this profession is raising your kids on a college campus in a college community, but at Boston College I couldn't do that," Hughes said. "With five kids and my salary, I had to live almost an hour away from the campus, so my kids were never with me. I could never take them to a random hoop game, or football games were a chore, and my wife couldn't come to baseball games because there was traffic and the kids were sleeping in the minivan. It was just a mess."
Hughes believed his family deserved better.
So when Virginia Tech called in 2006, Hughes saw a college town where his family could live close to campus more than the daunting challenge of turning around a program that went 4-25 in the ACC the year before.
"It was not a good situation and we ran there just so we could raise our family in a better situation," Hughes said. "I think we did a really good job with that program."
Hughes led Virginia Tech to five straight 30-win seasons, including a pair of 40-win campaigns that culminated with berths in the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and 2013.
Still, when a job offer came from another Power Five school in a bigger city, Hughes used the situation to help his family. He said he had Virginia Tech restructure his contract to funnel some of his bonus money into a 529 plan, essentially a tax-friendly college savings fund, for all of his children.
"I remember telling my wife that day I did that on my computer, I said this is the greatest day of my coaching career. She goes, 'What are you talking about?' I said, 'I just paid for our kids' education and I coach baseball for a living,'" Hughes said. "That's why I got into it. It's little moments like that."
Tuesday, June 12, 2018, was another one of those moments, although it wasn't so little.
On this day, he put on a K-State jersey, the white version with purple pinstripes. The number 19 sewn on it was not random, nor was it the number he wore as a player.
He wears it for his mother, who was born on September 19 and died at an early age. The number inspired him to start his 19 Ways Foundation. He created the foundation at Virginia Tech to honor his mother, who worked at a nursing home during her life.
"She never stopped helping people, and that carried over to me," Hughes, who implemented the 19 Ways Foundation during his four seasons at Oklahoma (2014-17) and plans to bring it to K-State, said of his mother. "That's why I wear 19. We do 19 things in the community as a team to help an individual or an organization out and help make their life a little bit better."
Hughes spent this past season as a volunteer assistant coach at Georgia, which hosted an NCAA Regional and lost in the championship game. He said he's extremely grateful for the opportunity, and even more thankful for the sacrifices made by his family, most of whom stayed in Norman, Oklahoma, while he was in Georgia.
On June 12, for the first time since Christmas, they were all together again — one family joining an athletic department built on the same word. It's a day Hughes said they won't soon forget.
"Today is always going to be remembered as a great day in our household because today we instantly become members of a tremendous college community," Hughes said. "June 12 will be a great day because instantly we become part of a nationally renowned academic institution. June 12 is going to be a great day in our family because we've joined an athletic department that wins, that has a strong tradition and a fanatical following. It's an absolute honor to be the head baseball coach at Kansas State."
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