WARDSVILLE, Mo. - Mike DeMilia is less than two weeks away from his head-coaching debut with Blair Oaks wrestling this winter. He also coaches the Jefferson City Renegades baseball team in the MINK League during the summer.
Now he will have a busy schedule during the spring.
DeMilia was named the Blair Oaks baseball head coach last Wednesday. The announcement was made official following Tuesday night's school board meeting.
"There's a lot of tradition here," said DeMilia, who teaches health, lifetime fitness and physical education at Blair Oaks High School. "Very seldom do they not have a successful season."
DeMilia takes over for Travis Henke, who resigned last month after three seasons as head coach when he received a promotion at his place of full-time employment.
DeMilia was approached about the opening shortly after Henke's resignation.
"I had to talk to my boss first, which is my wife," DeMilia said. "I definitely talked to her that evening, and we both agreed it was something we wanted to do."
Before coming to Missouri as baseball assistant coach at Truman State (2012-14) and then as baseball head coach at Lincoln (2015-16), DeMilia was the baseball head coach at Omaha (Neb.) Bryan High School from 2006-10.
DeMilia also served as an assistant coach at Millard North, Millard West and Omaha Central in Nebraska, where he also coached American Legion baseball. DeMilia was the head coach for the Nebraska Medical Center American Legion team from 2000-05.
DeMilia said he is excited to return to coaching baseball at the high school level.
"We certainly teach the game and fundamentals, but a lot of it is teaching kids the right way to do things," he said. "Working as a team, handling adversity, things of that nature. That's what we're doing in wrestling too."
The three teams - Blair Oaks wrestling, baseball and the Renegades - will keep DeMilia busy for the next eight months.
"It's nothing that's new for me," said DeMilia, who has twice coached three high school sports during the school year. He was on the coaching staffs for football, girls basketball and baseball at Omaha Central, then coached football, wrestling and baseball at Omaha Bryan.
The Blair Oaks baseball team finished with a 19-9 record last spring.