When he thinks about his coaching roots, Kyle Bess fondly recalls growing up in Charleston, Illinois, and spending time with his grandfathers, both of whom are in the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Verlon Myers and Bill Bess were high school teachers who also coached football and track. What Kyle Bess remembers the most, however, isn’t their accolades or win-loss records–it’s the impact his grandfathers had on other people’s lives.
“Even as a kid, that stuck with me, the way that people would come up 20 years later to talk to my grandpas and still call them ‘coach,’” says Bess. “I think it was largely because they did things the right way, they treated people the right way. That's where the respect came from.”
Bess adds, “You have wins and losses, you have up seasons and you have down seasons, but people remember the way you treat them. If you care about them and your priority is growing them as a person first and foremost, those things really, really stick with you.”
It’s with that in mind that Bess, who teaches career and technical education at Geneseo High School, steps into a new role–head varsity baseball coach. The hire is pending formal approval from the Board of Education at its October 10 meeting.
“Coach Bess has been part of our baseball program for many years and he understands what it is about,” said Joe Nichols, Athletic Director. “He’s contributed to building our program and helping it achieve sustained success, and now he’s tasked with growing it. While continuity is important and will serve our teams well, we also look forward to Kyle implementing his own style of leadership and new approaches.”
Bess replaces Nichols, who in six seasons as the varsity’s head coach compiled a record of 93-64 and led Geneseo to its best postseason in 2021, when the Maple Leafs advanced to the class 3A Elite Eight.
After graduating from Eastern Illinois University–where he also served as a baseball assistant coach for the JV team–with a bachelor’s degree in career and technical education, Bess was hired to teach at GHS in 2010. He became an assistant coach for Tim Gronski’s sophomore team, and the next year, took over as the head freshman coach. He spent four years in that capacity, then four more years as the head sophomore coach.
Bess left Geneseo briefly to teach at the Morrison Institute of Technology, but returned for the 2019-20 school year and became an assistant varsity baseball coach.
“I'm passionate about coaching baseball in Geneseo,” Bess states. “I don't want to coach baseball anywhere else. I was blessed to get a job in Geneseo. The level of community support that we have for baseball and our other programs in the school district is hard to find anywhere else.”
Bess feels he’s got an advantage in his new role thanks to working his way up through the system. He understands the expectations at the different levels and now, he’s ready to learn the grind that comes with being a varsity head coach. He’s confident he will do that in part because of sitting on the bench with Nichols the last five seasons.
“The big thing we've tried to do at the varsity level is to be really process-oriented and trust that results will take care of themselves,” Bess says. “That's a huge thing I learned from Coach Nichols when it comes to the daily processes and routines. If those are good, results will happen because of those things. The idea is to build those foundational ones so that over time we can grow as individuals and as a team.”
Bess inherits a program which has prioritized putting players into a position where they can compete beyond high school. Under Nichols, 15 players have become members of college programs.
Additionally, GHS baseball has collaborated with Geneseo Youth Baseball & Softball to define a feeder system and implement it in the Jr. Leafs, thus aligning the program’s vision from tee ball through varsity. With an indoor baseball facility and a variety of cutting-edge player development tools at his disposal, Bess knows he’s not starting from scratch.
“I don't plan to take what's largely been a very successful program over the past five years and turn it on its head,” Bess says. “I don't need to rebuild the stairs–I just want us to take the next step up.”
Bess adds, “It's definitely an advantage to know our players. I'm in the building with them teaching and have a lot of the guys in different classes. The familiarity is already there.”
As he looks ahead to the coming season, Bess is encouraged by the number of returning upperclassmen–as well as several underclassmen who earned varsity experience–and grateful for the opportunity.
“We've got a pretty strong team coming back,” Bess states. “This opportunity absolutely means the world to me. Growing up, I always felt that having longevity at a place is important. I feel fortunate to have been here a long time. This is the only place I've taught high school. It feels like I've kind of grown up with this place, from being a 24-year-old teacher and learning how to teach to someone who is pretty established. Now, it’s a new start to something again and that will be an exciting challenge.”
Geneseo High School's new varsity baseball head coach Kyle Bess along with his wife, Emily, daughter, Tommie, and son, Mason:
