High school baseball: Former major leaguer Ryan Feierabend coming home to coach Midview, his alma mater

It's not often a high school lands a coach with the resume of Ryan Feierabend. Not only did the Midview grad play professional baseball for nearly two decades, he's also currently coaching for the Miami Marlins organization. But he's set to return to his alma mater and take over the Middies baseball program next year, pending board approval June 30, per a release by Midview athletic director Dan May on Monday. "I have gotten to know Ryan fairly well since his retirement as a professional baseball player (in 2021)," May said in the release. "He truly cares about his community, and I was excited to learn of his interest in the position. His experience and enthusiasm are exactly what we need to lead Midview baseball into the next chapter of the program's storied history." Feierabend said he had the inside track on the job becoming available since his wife, Sarah, teaches at the high school and was able to put him in touch with May and superintendent Dr. Frank Major. "It's something that just came to fruition in the last couple of weeks," Feierabend said. "I didn't think it would ever really happen to be honest, but then with (former Midview coach) Ryan Morgan stepping down to pursue other opportunities – I know he teaches over at Westlake and the back and forth was really tough on him and his family — so this opportunity presented itself and it was just a no-brainer. I felt like it was time for me to come back." Feierabend led Midview to three straight Lorain County Conference championships and a district final appearance during his high school career. The left-handed pitcher finished with 23 wins, 347 strikeouts and a 1.55 ERA, and was named to the All-Ohio team and LCC's Player of the Year as a senior. Feierabend was selected in the third round of the 2003 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners and after working his way through their minor league system he made his MLB debut in 2006. He spent time with the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays, played pro ball in Korea and China and finished his career playing a season for the Lake Erie Crushers. Feierabend said coaching was always on the back burner and as soon as he retired as a player he started looking for ways to make that dream come true. "I actually tried to get into coaching immediately back in the pro ranks and it just didn't work out," he said. "A lot of teams that I talked to didn't feel I was ready from an analytical standpoint. A lot of the teams were using TrackMan and motion capture and all these other gadgets that I never really used when I played. So once I got a firm grip of that, I got the opportunity with the Marlins and I have been with them the last two years." Feierabend also spent time helping coach the Midview boys basketball team before being hired by Miami. He began coaching in the Dominican Summer League and then was named the pitching coach for the Class A Jupiter Hammerheads. He plans to return to Grafton after the Hammerheads' season ends. Feierabend also earned some coaching experience during the second half of his pro playing career, when he was able to serve as a mentor to some of the younger players. "When you stay in the game as long as I have, you almost become a second coach on the team," he said. "When I played there was only one pitching coach per team so a lot of the older veterans were essentially another pitching coach that the younger guys went to and that's something I just ended up naturally aspiring to do. I wanted to teach the younger generation of pitchers everything that I had learned, including knowing what it was like to come back and deal with recovery after having a bunch of different surgeries." Midview won its 16th conference championship in 2024 — its second in the Southwestern Conference — before going 10-15 overall and 4-10 in the league last season. Eight letterwinners are expected to return for Feierabend's debut season. "My message for the current and prospective members of the program is … BE READY TO WORK!!" he said in the school's release. "Baseball is a kid's game and we're going to have fun. With that being said, we are going to work our tails off to make sure we are sound in all facets of the game. Physical errors are going to happen! Mental errors cannot! We will have lots of discussion about situations on both offense and defense so that we are all thinking as one unit when it comes to game time." Feierabend resides in Grafton with his wife and two children — Trey, who plays basketball and will be a sophomore at Midview next year, and Sienna, who is a soccer player and will be entering the eighth grade. Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X.