Baseball: The matriarch of Mainland is undoubtedly coach Billy Kern’s mom, Cindy

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher When your last name is Kern, there’s only one thing more important than baseball — family. Through the years, though, the lines between baseball and family have blurred for the Kerns. Baseball and family are basically one in the same. Without baseball, the Kern family would be incomplete. And without the Kern family, the Mainland Regional baseball program would be missing something. And the cornerstone of both the Kern family and the Mustangs’ baseball program is Cindy Kern, the matriarch of Mainland. She has become such a mainstay that her three sons — head coach Billy and assistants Dan and Brian — stare at each other in disbelief if she ever misses a game. Which, for the record, happens about as often as the return of the cicadas. “It’s tough to put into words what she means to us. She’s been to literally every single game we’ve ever had. She was the one who always found what you did positive in a game. My dad was always the tough love coach. It was never a tough drive home with my mom because she would have found the three or four plays in the field you made, or the good base running,” Brian said. “She was always very positive in everything that we did, and she still is today. She’s the one who wants to come out and check out your new office or who you work with. She wants to meet all the people at your school. She was just out at my school recently because I got a new job. She wanted to meet the principal, meet the secretaries, all that. She’s been supportive in not just baseball, but grand-parenting and all of that.” Cindy Kern has been going to baseball games since her oldest, Dan, began playing T-ball when he was 5 years old. These days she and her husband, Dan Sr., climb the ladder to the press box over the dugout for every Mustangs home game, Cindy diligently working the scoreboard while Dan Sr. announces the lineups and each batter during the game. “Our mom has been our biggest supporter our whole lives, athletically, academically, and now that we are all established in our careers. I could probably count on one hand the number of games either one of my parents have missed a game our whole lives, whether it was playing or now that we are coaching together at Mainland,” Dan, the son, said. “They’ve always been there for us and they’ve always been willing to put us before themselves.” “As far back as I can remember, my mom was at every game. Every Little League game, Babe Ruth, high school and through college,” Billy said. “She was in Ohio, Florida, wherever we went throughout the country. Regardless of whether you went 4-for-4 or 0-for-4, she would tell you how great you were — almost to a fault. But it was a nice balance between her and my dad, who would be breaking everything down technically, what went well and what didn’t.” Baseball rules the Kerns’ life these days, and that probably won’t change anytime soon, as Cindy now has three grandsons, the oldest of whom is entering his T-ball days. Grandkids, from left, Chase, Bryce and Caden are now the apple of Cindy Kern’s eye as she watches over the next generation of Kern boys. (Photo submitted by Kern family) “Having my family around, I try to show (the players) how important it is to put your family first and make sure you thank the people around you. This program wouldn’t be what it is without my two brothers helping me out, our other assistant coaches, the support I get from my parents and the administration,” Billy said. “The things we emphasize to the kids, especially with the traveling we do like going to Florida (in preseason), we have great chair people for our golf tournament, people who run the snack bar; there are a lot of things that go into putting this whole show together for them. I just want them to say ‘thank you’ and be appreciative of everything that goes into it.” Brian said he believes seeing the strength of the Kern family bond makes an impression on the players. “I hope it does,” he said. “We don’t intend it to be that way, that’s just the way we are with our mom. But I hope it rubs off. Your mom is going to be there, so you should treat her the way she deserves to be treated. The support is always there, and hopefully it rubs off on the kids, and the parents as well, to come out and be supportive of their kids.” Cindy said she considers everyone involved in the Mainland baseball program to be a part of the Kern family. “I have a good rapport with (the players), and the kids who have played in the past, too. I feel like they will always be a part of our family. And I’ll always be friends with the parents who my sons played with. I think (baseball) brings families together. I love hearing these kids talk about what colleges they want to go to, and now they are all talking about the prom. They are all really nice families. The older kids take the younger kids under their wings, and my boys like to see that. They like to see kids getting helped the way they were when they were that age,” Cindy said. “I love coming to the games. I do the scoreboard and my husband does the announcing. We babysit all day and then rush to get here for the games. But we do love it. We wouldn’t have it any other way. And I’m very happy that our sons want us to be included. They want us to help, they want us to go to Florida with them (in preseason). Last year, the kids said a lot of nice things about us at the banquet, and I appreciate that. I think they see the family atmosphere. I think they realize that Billy likes having his family around. “I hope they don’t think we are overwhelming or anything like that. We root for all of them and we want them to do well, obviously. When they are having a bad game, you feel for them. And you feel for the parents, too, because any time your sons are hurting, so are you. I hope we are having a positive impact on the kids, and I think we are,” she added. “I see a lot of kids who have played in the past come back to the games. And you don’t go back to a place you don’t like. And what I like is there are kids who may not be the stars of the team, but I feel like my sons make them an integral part of the team in some way. If you look back at the championship teams, there were boys who weren’t starters who ended up making a big impact. That’s pretty neat.” These days, the Kern boys have to take a little bit of a backseat to Dan’s boys, Chase and Caden, and Brian’s young son, Bryce. Grandbabies are now the apple of Cindy’s eye. But, not surprisingly, the youngest of the Kern clan have quickly been assimilated into the Mustang family. “Every chance I get, if I see (kids clothing) in kelly green, I buy it and get their names put on it. They all have Mainland hats. So they are into it, too,” Cindy said. “I crochet, too, and recently I was making blankets for the church. One of my grandsons asked me if I would make him a blanket. I said, ‘sure, what color do you want?’ And he said, ‘green. Like the ‘Stangs.'” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]