GM & Coach

Mike Roberts – Head Coach

Coach Roberts returns to Cotuit for his ninth consecutive season in 2012. During his coaching tenure in the Cape League, which includes 2 seasons in Wareham in 1984 and 2000 where both teams made the play-offs, Coach Roberts has lead his team to the play-offs in 5 of the 8 seasons in Cotuit. The 2010 trip to the play-offs culminated in the Kettleers winning the 2010 Cape Cod League Championship and bringing the Arnold Mycock trophy back to Cotuit.

From 1978 through 1998, Roberts was the head coach at the University of North Carolina and then went on to UNC-Asheville, where he coached in the spring of 2000. All totaled, Roberts’ teams have made nine NCAA post-season and two College World Series appearances. His teams have also had a strong history of being tops amid their ACC peers, five times capturing the ACC Regular Season Championship and four times the ACC Tournament Championship. Eight of Roberts’ former players have been first round draft picks in the annual Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft. Sixteen of his former players have played in Major League Baseball. His lifetime collegiate coaching record is 850-450-3. His greatest individual coaching success is his own son, Brian Roberts, currently the two time all-star 2nd baseman for the Baltimore Orioles.

Five of Coach Roberts’ former players are now collegiate head coaches, many are assistants, and several others work in professional baseball or are professional baseball athletes advisors. “I am pleased so many of the excellent student/athletes I have recruited through the years continue to enjoy a career helping young men try to reach their academic, athletic, and career goals.

Every summer in Cotuit the goal is to win a Cape League Championship. We strive to accomplish this goal with mature college student/athletes from around the nation who embrace practicing and playing at picturesque Elizabeth Lowell Park. Many of the Kettleer players become involved in our wonderful community with activities such as the Cotuit library writing program and the ever growing Kettleer baseball clinics. The athletes provide tremendous leadership to young people during the summer as they are also building close relationships, that many times last a lifetime, with their host families.

Prior to managing Wareham to the Western Division regular season title in 2000, Roberts had led Wareham to the same title in 1984. Each of those two seasons, Roberts’ Cape League teams led the entire League in stolen bases and continued this tradition with the 2007 Kettleers. In 2000, Roberts’ Wareham team tied the Cape League all-time single season stolen base record with 134 stolen bases.

In the off-season, Coach Roberts is studying part-time for his Doctorate in Sports Administration at the University of New Mexico. He has also written a book on base stealing titled “You Can’t Steal Second Base and Keep Your Foot on First!” published in Dec. 2008. In Jan. 2011, a new teaching DVD with the same title came on the market and was filmed at beautiful Elizabeth Lowell Park in Cotuit. His son Brian, who led the American League in stolen bases in 2007, contributed to the book and the DVD which shows some clips of Brian stealing bases for the Orioles.

Mike works for two sports industry leaders during the off-season. His primary position is Director of Baseball Development for SmartKage from Tyngsborough, Mass. SmartKage is the new leader in a high technology evaluation system and reports exact athletic performance levels by sport, age, and system. SmartKage will have these technology systems available to test athletes in approximately 160 amateur hitting facilities across the USA in the next two years. Also, coach consults for Athletes’ Performance driving the Business Development for Baseball primarily with minor league and major league baseball athletes. AP is featured often in publications and on ESPN as the premier athletic training center for Elite Athletes in the USA and around the world.

Bruce Murphy – General Manager

Bruce Murphy has been General Manager of the Cotuit Kettleers since 1999. More to come.