Summer love: Middle school counselor Pat Floyd mentors ballplayers for Anchorage Bucs

For the last two years, Pat Floyd has had a summer fling, and he's hoping it develops into a long-term relationship.

Floyd, a devoted family man and a Palmer Junior Middle School counselor, has been a coach for the Anchorage Bucs' Alaska Baseball League team for the last two summers. Eventually, he'd like to go into coaching full-time, using the experience he has gained as a Buc assistant. Baseball is his passion, and working with some of the top collegiate players in the country is an opportunity Floyd couldn't pass up.

"If we ever moved back to the States, I'd be interested in coaching full-time," Floyd said. "But right now, I'm happy helping out the local teams and my boys are getting to that age when I'm going to start coaching and teaching with them."

Floyd's talents as a high school player in Kodiak were well known around the state. Floyd went on to play baseball at The University of The Pacific, and for two years -- 1990 and 1991 -- he played for the Anchorage Bucs. It was while he was playing college ball that the connection for his eventual return to the Bucs was made. A teammate and his roommate during his senior year was Jim Yanko. Yanko went on to coach at Delta Junior College, while Floyd came back to Alaska.

A couple years ago, Floyd got to talking with Dennis Mattingly, the longtime general manager of the Anchorage Bucs. The Bucs had an opening for their managerial position, and Floyd mentioned Yanko. He got the job three years ago, and immediately asked his former roommate to join the staff.

"With the boys playing and us traveling that summer, it didn't work out," Floyd said. "The last two years I've coached and it's been a lot of fun for me. Getting to work with the college kids is a lot of fun."

Floyd and his wife, Kim, work for the Mat-Su School District, but during the summer, he is the one going to school at times. He said he has learned more about baseball in two years working with the Anchorage Bucs than he did in a long career as a player.

"There are a lot of things that I took for granted as a player that now I see a lot differently," Floyd said. "I'll be looking over Yanko's shoulder and seeing why he is intentionally walking this hitter or getting somebody up in the bullpen. You have to see the game in advance and anticipate, rather than reacting."

His official role is the second assistant, which covers much of the first-base coaching duties and defensive positioning.

But he is just as eager to pick Yanko's brain on decisions and hang out with the players, teaching them a thing or two along the way. Many of the players never even knew Floyd was a big-time player in his day, but after reading a few pages of a local book, they've changed their minds.

In former Anchorage Daily News' sports editor Lew Freedman's book about the Alaska league, Diamonds in the Rough, Floyd is featured.

"A couple of them read 'Diamonds in the Rough' and I get a little more respect," he said with a chuckle. "They don't know that this is the second time I've worn a Bucs uniform. I had to con one of them to put up my old baseball card. I could actually hit back then."

Floyd's story is one many young players can learn from, he said. Both as a player and now as a coach, he said there is one underlying lesson to be learned.

"If there's an opportunity for you, take it," Floyd said. "You can be successful coming out of Alaska."

Floyd said college players flock to the ABL because of the rich tradition, which includes names like Reggie Jackson, Tom Seaver and Mark McGwire on the alumni list. Many of the players up here are top prospects. In baseball, and in life, work is rewarded, Floyd said.

"They still have to do the fundamentals, the repetition," Floyd said. "That's the way you get better -- hard work."

Floyd's own hard work has paid off in another one of his endeavors -- refereeing. He has called basketball games at the high school level and is in the process of moving up to the collegiate level.

Last year, he refereed one of the biggest games of the season in Alaska, when the University of Alaska Anchorage played the University of Alaska Fairbanks in a crucial contest. He also worked a contest in the Lower 48 last season.

"Within five years, I'd love to get a Shootout game," Floyd said.

For now, though, he's content sitting on the Bucs bench and helping players get better.

In the near future, his most important coaching job ever will become available, and he's ready for the opportunity -- to coach his young sons as they play baseball for the first time.