Ken Bolek
Next week, the IMG Baseball Academy will officially begin its regular season — the 18th with Ken Bolek as the director. Here’s a more in-depth profile of Bolek and how he’s shaped the program:
He had already put in 13 or 14 hours that day, and the sun was quickly dipping below the landscape.
Exhausted and hungry, Ken Bolek was ready to close his office for the day when he heard the steady pinging sound of an aluminum bat coming from the batting cage outside of his office. Bolek glanced out and saw an IMG Baseball Academy student-athlete who, not quite content with his day’s worth of training, snuck back to the practice area to get in just a few more swings before the day ended.
“I shut the lights off in my office, went to the cage and talked to the player for a few minutes,” Bolek said. “By the time I got to my car, it was completely dark.
“That’s why I stay here. I want to be in an atmosphere where every single day you see people giving 100 percent. That’s what drives me.”
As the IMG Baseball Academy Director since 1995, Bolek has pushed the program to the elite level, while producing countless Division-I recruits and Major League Baseball-caliber talent. Bolek relies on more than 30 years of coaching experience at literally every level from high school to the minor leagues to a stint as a coach of the Cleveland Indians.
Despite all of the awards and accolades, which include a National Championship ring from his playing days at the University of Arizona, one would never know of his history filled with valuable memories. His office has no framed photos of him with famous former players. His house has no trophies – not from baseball or his prep days playing football, for which he almost accepted a scholarship to Princeton.
“To draw attention to myself is not my thing,” he said. “I’m proud of my players’ accomplishments – extremely proud – but I never consciously dwell on my impact on that person.”
Tyler Pastornicky, an IMG Baseball Academy alum who is tabbed as the Atlanta Braves starting shortstop for 2012, can attest to Bolek and the IMG Baseball Academy’s importance to a player’s development.
Ken Bolek
“Ken’s a great coach and an awesome guy,” said Pastornicky, who spent four years at IMG Academies. “He definitely knows what he’s talking about. At IMG, you’re there to get better, and it’s all on you. You have all the tools to get better, you just have to use them.”
Growing up in Ohio, Bolek turned down a minor-league offer after graduating from high school to attend Arizona. After college, he spent a short time in the Minor Leagues. That period, he later realized, helped him learn what role a coach can serve.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of mentoring or coaching going on,” he said. “I think that at some point if I would’ve had some different type of guidance in how to prepare for the pros, maybe things would’ve turned out different.”
After stopping his playing days, Bolek received a coveted grad assistant role at Mississippi State University, which began a circuitous coaching route through the minors to the Cleveland Indians and, eventually, to the IMG Baseball Academy.
At IMG, Bolek has ingrained into the program the key values – traits like dedication, fortitude and passion – that help a person not only on the diamond, but throughout life. For Bolek, who has coached players like Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton and Sandy Alomar in the professional ranks, the week-to-week and year-to-year challenge keeps his competitive drive high.
And after all these years, he still pushes himself to learn more as a coach and leader.
“The development of a coach is the same as a player,” Bolek said. “If I’m not better this year than last year, I would take issue with that. A coach’s personal development is not unlike that of a player. Know your strengths and weaknesses while committing effort to reaching higher goals. Satisfaction alone sets your ceiling.”
