Compassion on the Diamond

Reported By: Noah Meffert

Photographed By: Naji Saker

NEWBERG, Ore.- The thrill of reaching the top. The pain of losing a big game. The confidence of beating your rival, and the swallowing of pride after they beat you. Promoting love and honesty in the clubhouse and the dugout, while still maintaining a sense of cohesion and leadership that will keep everyone in line with the team goals.

These moments and emotions have all been an integral part of the coaching career of Kevin Kopple, head baseball coach at George Fox University (GFU), and have played a crucial role in his life and baseball career.

After spending his playing career in an atmosphere at GFU that was fresh off of a national championship, Kopple has tried to bring that same energy and work ethic to his players on and off the field. Having spent his whole life in and around high-level baseball, he is able to relate to players of all-calibers and skill levels on the team, which in turn leads to a higher level of cohesion and unity among his players.

Kopple grew up in Vajello, California, and attended St. Patrick-St.Vincent High School. He found success early in his baseball career, making the varsity team as a freshman and playing all four years of high school baseball there.

After graduation, Kopple was unable to gain admission into his dream school, University of California-San Diego due to grades, and thus had to take the junior college route.

He signed with Napa Valley Community College (NVCC) and, along with the rest of his freshman class, came in and turned the program around.

“They were not very good,” he said in reference to NVCC’s baseball team, where he would play for two years. “But our freshman class came in and tripled the wins from the previous year.”

After his two years at NVCC, Kopple was recruited and signed by GFU to play for them. He experienced even more success during his time at GFU, and was later offered a coaching job on staff for the Bruins.

This came as a shock to Kopple, who had planned to get his pre-law degree and move back to California to start a life there. However, after joining the coaching staff, he fell in love with GFU and the rural Oregon town of Newberg, which would become his home for the next 16 years.

After becoming a full-time staff member for the Bruins in 2015, he was offered the head coaching job in the summer of 2019, which he accepted, catapulting him headlong into the baseball coaching world.

“I get to work with two of my good friends on a daily basis, and I can’t ask for much more than that,” Kopple said in reference to softball coach Jessica Hollen and the Bruins’ pitching coach Brandon Rupp.

“We have a supportive staff, great facilities, and a great group of people here at Fox, and I don’t want to leave that,” Kopple said. After spending these past three years in the head coaching role, Kopple does not have plans of leaving any time soon. He has found his home at GFU and does not want to lose it.

In all his years of experience, Kopple has come to understand that the most important part of any program is the players, and that is who he tries to value most.

“Yes, I want to win championships and be successful, but more importantly, I want to grow my players as men,” he said.

Kopple views success through a different lens than most people. “To date, I’ve officiated three of my former player’s weddings, and to me, that means more than a championship,” Kopple said.

This is Kopple’s most consistent and heartfelt message to his players: he wants them to know that his love for them is not attached to what they do on the field, but is grown by their actions both on and off the diamond.