Raptors Baseball 2025 Coaches

Coach Elliot Crowder

Coach Keith Hermans

 I am a police officer. I have been married for 15 years to my wife, Lindsay, and we have 3 kids: Ellie, Jack, and Drew. I love coaching. I love the opportunity to spend time with my kids, see kids work hard and try their best, learn from their mistakes, and learn to handle adversity and show good sportsmanship. I love playing sports with my kids, mainly football , soccer, and baseball. I also enjoy fantasy football, the Detroit Lions, and going to movies.

Coach Mike O'Neill

Coach Ben Morin

I am a Career Readiness Consultant at Oakland Schools helping support districts and directing early college opportunities for students.  I met my wife, Courtney, in college and our two sons and daughter enjoy playing sports and being part of teams.  

Baseball is extremely challenging. There are a lot of failures, and it has been rewarding over 8+ years as a youth baseball coach to see those successes happen in the players am working with!   I want the kids I coach to know that they can do hard things and then that is when the fun happens!  I am trying to develop baseball players, but more importantly, connect baseball lessons to life and develop great people.  My teams are grounded by the concepts of Attitude & Effort / Calm & Confident.  When players take the field or go up to bat the goal is to have the heart of a dog with Raptors claws!
Fun Fact: Our family has seen a game in 11 MLB Parks so far.

Coach Matt Smith

I'm a sales professional and have been married to my amazing wife for 13 year and have 4 incredible kids.  

Coaching is the other love of my life.  I have coached or currently coach my daughter and three sons in baseball, softball, football, hockey, basketball, and soccer for the past 8 years.  While I love most sports, baseball is my true #1.

There's nothing more exciting for me than teaching a child some new concept or way to play and seeing them 'get it' and succeed. I've had the pleasure of having many players stick with me for multiple seasons and watching the progression is phenomenal.

I coach to sportsmanship, effort, and positive enforcement above all else and have found that with all three of these ingredients, the sky is the limit!

Coach Ben Wright

I am a Sales Professional and have been with Ferguson Enterprises for 13 years. I work with airports, manufacturing facilities, and real estate development properties on all their facility supply needs.

I married my high school sweetheart and true love, Jessica, going on 13 years of marriage. We have two children, Landon (9) and Sadie (8) as well as our fur-baby Tuck who is a 1  year old Australian Labradoodle) I have had a love of baseball since being a child, everything from playing it to the friendships that occur from being inside a dugout. I was fortunate to have had my dad be my coach until high school, creating a bond with him that I am forever grateful for. As a dad now, I don’t just love baseball for the game

itself, but more importantly the opportunity to spend so much quality time with my son and his teammates getting to teach them all the important life lessons the game provides. While I believe in prioritizing the technical foundations baseball requires to become successful, I spend most of my time focusing on the mental aspect of the game to create an environment where our players play free, fast,

and with JOY!

When I am not on the baseball field, you can find me on a golf course! Fun fact about me, I was an Assistant Golf Professional in Jupiter Florida for a few winters which is now the playground for many PGA tour professionals!

Coach Karl Reading

I have been married to my amazing wife, Vanessa for 15 years. Together we have three beautiful children and a dog: Elizabeth (13), Maximus (11), Abraham (10), and Goldendoodle Leia (3). Together we enjoy camping, a love of the outdoors, and serving others through church. When I'm not on the ballfield, you can find me preparing BBQ in our backyard. I work in software development as a Supervisory Team Lead of Technical Services. I've worked in both the public and private sectors serving people for most of my career.
I've coached various youth sports for my children on top of baseball for over 8 years. I've played some form of baseball or softball every year since I was five years old. I love baseball, and we are a baseball family. It is a blessing to be able to share my love and knowledge of the game with my boys and their friends on the field.
Baseball is an incredibly hard sport! It's filled with joys, and lots of failures. I really love being a part of the growth path that takes our kids through ebbs and flows as they learn. I want to raise great humans first, great ball players second. We all make mistakes, and mistakes are OK! It's part of our growth as people. Using those mistakes and failures to learn and grow is what I coach.
I teach my kids to take everything on the field one step at a time and to live in the moment while on the field. One play, One swing, One hit, One pitch, One half inning at a time until the umpire tells us to go home.
I aspire to be more like Coach Ballgame. He's my hero. What we do and what we teach is not about the "W". The process is the win.

Coach Scott Ryan

I have worked for a consulting company called Accenture for the last 18 years, currently serving as a Quality Assurance Manager and the Data Security Lead on our account.  My wife, Toni, and I met as juniors at Michigan State University and we have been married now for 15 years.  If you listen closely during our games, you might hear her cheering on our Raptors boys!  Together we have two kids, Lincoln (10) and Reese (7).

I first discovered my passion and love for coaching as a high school baseball player, while helping as an instructor for the baseball camps my high school offered to younger players.  As a coach today, I am passionate about working with young kids to teach them the game of baseball, develop an appreciation and love for the game, working to build and improve their skills and challenging myself to put each kid in the best position possible to succeed.  As a coach, my philosophies center around developing and maintaining a positive environment, delivering critiques in an encouraging manner and working to make sure each player understands mistakes will happen, to not be afraid of them occurring, but instead understanding the value of those mistakes as learning and growth opportunities.

Outside of coaching baseball, I enjoy spending time creating memories with my family and friends, and watching whatever sports are on TV, especially our Detroit teams!  

Coach Adam Helberg

I am the General Manager for Jeffrey Automotive Group and Tamaroff Motors.  I oversee daily operations for all 6 of our dealerships.  My wife Whitney and I have 2 boys, Adam (10) and Lucas (8).  

At a very young age I knew two things, I loved baseball and I wanted to have a family of my own when I grew up.  Being able to blend these two passions of mine is truly a dream come true.  Baseball provides so many life lessons that will help us mold our young athletes into respectful young men and women.  While the goal will always be to win games and win tournaments, my personal goal is to teach these young athletes to win respectfully and lose better then they win.  The best baseball players in the world "fail" 7 out of 10 times at the plate.

When I'm not working or coaching, you'll find me with my family.  We may be playing sports, watching a movie, building legos or playing video games.  We're always looking for fun ways to spend time together.

Coach Cory Treadaway

I am a Finance Director within the hydrogen business at Cummins, Inc. I was born and raised in North Carolina, and my family and I have lived in Michigan for 9 years. I am married to my wife of 15 years, Ann Marie, and I have two kids: Aiden (12) and Ashlyn (8) and we reside in Rochester Hills.

My love of baseball started at age 4 when I played on my first team and from watching my dad’s men’s slow pitch softball tournaments every weekend. I grew up playing Little League, travel

baseball, middle school, and high school baseball. Some of my fondest memories of playing baseball are finishing 2 nd in the North Carolina Little League State tournament as a 10-year-old and winning the Conference Championship as a Senior in high school. As I finished my playing career after high school, I transitioned to competitive slow pitch softball which I played for another 16 years. I have been coaching youth baseball for the past 3 years and it is such a joy to watch players develop each year, both physically and mentally. My coaching philosophy is grounded in Sportsmanship, Leadership, Hustling (giving 110% always), Development

(technique and mindset) and Accountability. I believe these 5 traits will not only translate into success on the field for our players but translate into success as an adult.

Outside of being on the baseball field, my hobbies consist of my daughter’s gymnastics, golf (a lot), traveling and exploring, and house projects.

Coach Josh Patton

Vice President of Sales for an equipment financing company, helping businesses finance energy efficiency equipment, renewables, and EV charging infrastructure.

Married to Sara Patton for 17 years with 3 kids, Ellie (14), Lincoln (12), and Calvin (11).  Grew up locally in Troy and have lived in Rochester for 10 years.

My passion for coaching baseball is fueled from the baseball knowledge that I've soaked up over the years, spanning from recreational leagues, high school and travel ball, all the way to my college experience. I'm honored to be able to pass on my love for the game while providing an environment that produces growth. Guiding youngsters in their journey towards becoming not only improved athletes on the field, but also exceptional individuals in real life, is a source of great pride.

My hobbies include hiking, playing hockey in a local beer league, and enjoy playing board games (side job of being an owner of a card/board game publisher).