Home Plate Baseball was established in the fall of 2002 by Wilson Kilmer.  His goal has been to give quality baseball and softball instruction to players of all ages and abilities.  With over 25 years of baseball coaching experience, Wilson has the ability to help your player achieve success at their current level as well as prepare for their move on to the next level.

    Before opening Home Plate Baseball, Kilmer was a college coach for 23 years.  His college coaching experience:

                       University of Kansas          Assistant Coach              1988-2002
                    Hutchinson CC                   Head Coach                    1986-1987
                    Dodge City CC                    Head Coach                    1985
                    Emporia State U.                Assistant Coach              1980-1984

    While serving as the pitching coach at Kansas for 15 years, he helped over 20 of his pupils to reach the ranks of professional baseball.  Of those professional players, 3 of them have reached the major leagues, Scott Taylor, Les Walrond, and Tom Gorzelany.   While Kilmer coached at KU, the Jayhawks twice played in the NCAA Regionals, 1993 and 1994, and advanced to Omaha and appeared in the College World Series in 1993.  While coaching at Emporia State University, the Hornets played in the NAIA World Series in 1984.
 

Kilmer's Playing Honors

        1979    NAIA 1st Team All America Pitcher
        1979    McDonald's College Baseball NAIA                        Division,  1st Team All American
        1978    Member of NAIA National Championship Team
                        Emporia State University
        1977    NJCAA Region Six 1st Team Pitcher
        1975    Kansas High School Player of the Year
        1975    Wichita City League 1st Team Pitcher
        1974    Wichita City League 1st Team Pitcher
 

Kilmer's Playing History

Kilmer grew up in Wichita, Kansas, he played baseball at the following schools during the seasons of:
        1972 – 1975    Wichita Heights High School
        1976 – 1977    Hutchinson Community College
        1978 – 1979    Emporia State University

LJWorld.com                                      Wednesday, July 7, 2004
Lawrence Journal-World

Kilmer teaches baseball his way

Former Kansas University Pitching Coach offers personal baseball instruction                   By Ira J. Spitzer, World Online writer

    Twelve-year-old Cody Jones has come to a warehouse on the east side of Lawrence on a Thursday morning to work on his baseball skills.  The walls of the warehouse are covered with pictures of professional and amateur baseball players, and scattered about are various tools and instruments unfamiliar to anyone without an intimate knowledge of the game.
While Jones takes left-handed swings in a batting cage fenced in by mesh wiring, he is being videotaped by a camera mounted next to the cage.

    Pitching to Jones is Wilson Kilmer, former Kansas University pitching coach, a tenant of the warehouse and the owner of Home Plate Baseball, a company that offers Kilmer's instructional services for groups and individuals.
"He's just learning to switch-hit," Kilmer explained. "This is his new side. Sometimes it looks good, sometimes it's ugly."
But in these humble surroundings, students have access to one of Lawrence's great local baseball minds. Kilmer has worked with pitchers who've gone on to the major leagues, and his deceptively simple approach takes the game to a level that few little leaguers have the chance to experience.

    "One of the philosophies I have is to use drills that give instant feedback," Kilmer said.
He uses techniques that break down the mechanics of the game to its smallest components, like having players pitch or hit while balancing on a long piece of wood called a slide board, or setting up tees in awkward positions to make them more aware of their bat control.

    For Kilmer, Home Plate Baseball is the next step in a long career built around the game.  Kilmer pitched for Emporia State and won the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national championship there in 1978. He went on to coach at the junior college level before becoming the pitching coach at KU in 1988.  He spent 15 years in that role, working with two head coaches, Dave Bingham and Bobby Randall. But when Ritch Price took over the head coaching position at KU, he brought his own staff with him, a move that Kilmer calls "a normal part of the business."  "After 23 years, I was out of coaching, and there wasn't really a situation that I liked out there," Kilmer said. "We love Lawrence and we wanted to stay around here."

    So, he conceived of the idea of Home Plate Baseball. He rented the warehouse he shares with a T-shirt printing business, and set up shop.  He had experience working with kids at KU's baseball camps, but nothing quite like this.
"I wasn't doing anything one-on-one," Kilmer said. "Basically it was small groups, and you weren't with kids for that long."
But it didn't take too long for the self-described "standup comedian," and father of two, to relate to the younger players and start enjoying the next chapter in his life.

    "Coaching and teaching baseball is something I love to do," he said. "That's the funnest part, seeing kids learn and grow."
For players with the real chance of continuing to play baseball beyond their teenage years, Kilmer brings an understanding of just how difficult that is.   Sometimes this can be a necessary shock to kids who are used to dominating their little league games and who might be developing bad work habits.  "I'm not afraid to say, ‘Hey, as a college coach, if I see someone doing what you're doing right now, I don't want to recruit you,'" he said. "You don't have to be loud or mean, but to me that's part of my job here. They think it's all talent, but it's not."

    Home Plate has become pretty successful in its third year of existence. Kilmer gives about 35 lessons a week and has had students as young as 7 and as old as 60.  And it may be different from his years of coaching, but that's not a bad thing.
Kilmer's developed a fondness for his warehouse. He likes the natural color of the wood and points out a fixture on the ceiling that he thinks used to be part of a grain elevator.  "It's nothing fancy, it gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter," he said.

The warehouse and job have somewhat fulfilled a lifelong goal for Kilmer, as well. "I always wanted to be a professional pitcher, and I guess I am," he said. "I always imagined being in the seventh game of the World Series, but I am paid to pitch to people now."

Contents of this article are © Copyright 2006 The Lawrence Journal-World. All rights reserved.