“The teachers will never crack. Purple monkey dishwasher,” Coach Tim Orlosky, on the topic of the Taylor Emmons Scholarship Foundation.

Orlosky later admitted that this bizarre line came from the cartoon show, The Simpsons.

But he never explained the irrelevance of his response to what I asked him in the first place. I was interviewing him for that week’s Bolt article on the Emmons tournament.

A few days after this communication, I forwarded him a message I’d received from Sandy Albano, Executive Director of the Taylor William Emmons Memorial Foundation, saying, that “it was his [Orlosky’s] time, energy and efforts that brought this fundraiser to life.”

So I reached out to him again for information. Once again he refused to give me a real answer, more specifically he replied, “I found that a duck’s opinion of me is based on whether or not I have bread.”

I finally decided to surrender my efforts and move on with the facts of the article.

The ODA community is full of faculty and staff members that have the most interesting and unique personalities. This especially goes for Head Baseball Coach, Tim Orlosky. This year is his fourth at Out-of-Door and every single year he has lead the Thunder Baseball Team to a regional tournament and a winning record. However, it’s what he does off the field and how he interacts with his players and other students that makes him such a character.

During our baseball game against Riverview High School, it was apparent Coach Orlosky was getting a little restless during our thirteen inning game. 

“I was on the bench watching the game and then all of the sudden I got a face full of water from Coach Orlosky because for some reason he had the impulse to throw his cup of water on me,” says junior, Hunter Bogumil.

Coach Orlosky is well-known for his antics and his character not only by his athletes, but also by his colleagues.

“Coach Orlosky is quite the purple monkey dishwasher,” concurs Coach Charlie Balliette.

Despite all of the little pranks and jokes Coach Orlosky plays on the team, his work as a coach has been an important part of the Thunder’s success. There is no one on campus who puts more pressure on players to thrive under the lights. For that reason alone, players don’t accept anything less than success on the baseball field.

Orlosky focuses on the theory that physical errors and mistakes are a part of the game and punishment for a physical error is unreasonable. Avoiding mental errors, however, is essential on a daily basis. This practice helps to assure that when mistakes are committed, players are disciplined.

What does mental discipline look like? For players under Orlosky, discipline on the baseball field or in the classroom usually involves a lot of cardiovascular exercise (running).

“I got in trouble inside the classroom, and he made me run four miles after practice,” says sophomore, Mason Kolbe.

“Coach Orlosky keeps a perfect balance between taking care of business and keeping it loose,” say junior Alex DiMare. 

“Coach Orlosky ends our games with serious post-game talk and the longer it goes on, the less serious it gets, drastically,” says senior, Brady Moore.

Coach definitely makes players and coaches laugh and work.

It’s been a great season, and Orlosky’s been a great coach, two things about baseball in 2017 that the team will never forget.