Holler starting a new tradition

Oak Creek — In what quickly shaped up to be the Summer of Jim Hughes - the veteran Franklin coach set the state's all-time win record before winning his first state title last month - it was only fitting that one of his former disciples turned in one of the best coaching efforts in suburban Milwaukee.

Oak Creek's Scott Holler, who coached with Hughes at Franklin in 2003-04, did not return a single starter from the 2009 team that went 26-10 and shared the Greater Metro Conference title.

Sure, he had senior pitcher/first baseman Tyler Zemla, the 2010 NOW All-Suburban player of the year, back in the fold, but the Knights came into the season relatively inexperienced. Despite that, the Knights set a school record with 28 regular season victories, tied for third in the Greater Metro Conference and finished 29-10 overall.

Earning new honors

For his efforts, Holler is the first coach in school history to win the NOW All-Suburban Baseball Team's coach of the year award. Holler and Zemla are just the second player/coach combo from the same school to sweep the top NOW awards in the same season and the first since Franklin's Steve Grzeszkiewicz and Hughes accomplished the feat in 1992.

"I'm not surprised he has been successful," Hughes said. "I could see it coming. He only worked a couple of seasons for us, but we could see he's a guy that would work really hard and was really into baseball and committed to do it."

Holler played for the Knights from 1995-98 under Joel Paar, whom Holler credited for turning the program into a perennial winner. From 1999-2002, he was an assistant to Peter Dooley before leaving for Franklin.

"I learned a lot playing with coach Paar, but I never took the time to understand what it took to coach until I worked with Peter," Holler said. "He always seemed to know how to put the kids in the best position to be successful.

"What Jim was great at, and what a lot of people unfortunately don't see, is the administration stuff: communication with parents about offseason fundraising, running the fundraisers, getting out and reaching out to community members, budgeting, that type of stuff."

Respecting past honors

Holler said he also was impressed with how Hughes presented the history of the program to his players. Hughes compiles stat packets and school record books, and if a player is approaching a school record, Hughes knows about it. Holler has tried to emulate that at Oak Creek.

"We kept records at Oak Creek, but I had never seen that before," Holler said. "(Hughes) spent a lot of time making sure his players knew about the tradition of his program. As a baseball guy, I was impressed. You should know the history of the game to appreciate the game.

"When I left Franklin, that's what I really wanted to take from him. I wanted the community know this is a proud tradition at Oak Creek. It's not just, 'I'm playing varsity baseball this year.' No, it's 'I'm part of something big that's been big for awhile and will continue to be big if I do my part.' "

Starting strong

When Holler replaced Dooley as the Knights' head coach in 2005, he found immediate success as Oak Creek won its third of an unprecedented three straight WIAA state titles. Since then the expectations have been perhaps higher than usual for Holler, but he and the Knights have only returned to state once since (2008).

Coming to grips with others expectations and dealing with the pressure of past successes has helped Holler grow as a coach.

"What's unfortunate, and this is another thing I've learned from Jim, people don't realize how hard it is to just get (to state)," Holler said. "To win it is so difficult. You really have to catch some breaks. Things have to go the right way. … It's unrealistic to say that if we don't win the state tournament the season was a disappointment."

"We expect to compete and be in the mix every year because we believe in the system we have and do things the right way."

Building team chemistry

That attitude, along with a team chemistry anchored by five seniors, paved the way to this season's success. The seniors set the tone with their work ethic. Soon the juniors followed suit and then the underclassmen. Holler also noted 16 of his 18 players have participated in other sports.

"Sports are still so big mentally," Holler said. "I don't know if you gain that sitting in a warehouse hitting off a tee all winter long or throwing off a mound when no one else is around. To me, I want the guy that's in a fourth-and-1 situation or at the free-throw line with three seconds left. That's the guy I want in the batter's box. That goes a long way in my book."