Death of coach shocks Chesapeake community

CHESAPEAKE

At Aldersgate United Methodist Church this morning they will file in – boys, teenagers, young men – all wearing the baseball jerseys they wore when coached by Mark Caffee.

Caffee died suddenly Saturday afternoon, a few hours after coaching his team to victory in a 10-inning thriller in the Western Branch Pony baseball tournament.

Saturday started out the usual way for Caffee, 42, who typically took his own mower to tend to the Western Branch fields.

He was at the Western Branch Athletic Club’s Pony Complex off Tyre Neck Road before 7, checking conditions after Friday night’s heavy rain.

“Field is perfect,” he texted close friend Rob Butler, also the opposing coach for the Saturday morning game, played out in the brutal humidity and extending past two hours.

Caffee was in typical form throughout the game, assuming his regular position sitting atop an oversize bucket of balls in front of the dugout, where he quipped good-natured one-liners to his players, which included 13-year-old son Peyton.

“Is that all you got for me, kid?”

“Not your pitch, kid.”

“Have some fun out there, kid.”

Caffee told Butler the 8-7 victory that came down to a final play at the plate was among the most exciting games he had been a part of before whisking off to Western Branch Community Center with his wife, Theresa, to catch part of daughter Ashley’s softball game.

When that ended, he was set to head over to Western Branch High School for son Chris’ wooden bat league game.

Caffee collapsed in the parking lot from what is believed to be a massive heart attack. Paramedics arrived quickly but were unable to revive him. He had no history of a heart problem, Theresa Caffee said.

“I knew he wasn’t feeling well, and I wanted to get him home,” said Theresa, a marketing teacher at Western Branch High School.

“He was everything to me,” she said. “He took care of his mom; he took care of my mom; he wanted to take care of everybody. He was my best friend. I’m going to miss everything about him.”

That sentiment is shared by a Western Branch baseball community that centered on Caffee, who softened his demanding practices with lighthearted fun, allowing players to toss pies in his face before district tournaments and wrapping himself up with toilet paper at a team holiday party.

Over the past 10 years, Caffee served as coach, manager and baseball commissioner for the WBAC, which annually made him an all-star coach or manager.

Eighth-grader Josh Timko, like many of his friends, will skip an end-of-the-year school party to attend Caffee’s 11 a.m. funeral at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 4320 Bruce Road in Chesapeake.

“All of his free time he spent with his family and with us at the baseball field,” Timko said. “He was one of the best coaches I think I’ll ever have, because he pushed us to go 110 percent and never give up on anything.”

By Monday evening, players, former players, siblings of players and parents began hanging baseball caps with personal notes on the fence of the dugout where Caffee coached his last game.

“You taught me so much,” wrote Jacob Maddock. “This hat is from the only time we ever beat you. I wanted you to have my prized possession.”

“He never played for next year; he was always about this year’s team,” said WBAC Commissioner Ken Wren. “Every year he’d look at his roster and say, ‘I got nothing.’ Then a little while later he’d have that twinkle in his eye and he’d say, ‘I’ve got a little something.’ ”

Caffee took his Cyclones travel team, which included Peyton, to the Pony World Series in Chesterfield two years ago and to Cooperstown, N.Y., last summer.

Previously, Caffee coached Chris’ teams, and most recently dabbled in coaching Ashley in softball and basketball. “If we liked it, he liked it, too,” Ashley said.

The all-star team will be selected this weekend, with plans to dedicate the season to Caffee. Players have talked of sewing a patch with his initials on their uniforms. Across Western Branch, dozens of boys and girls have changed their Facebook profile pictures to an image of Caffee.

“He loved baseball,” said Western Branch junior Patrick Avery. “He would do anything for anybody. He touched everybody around him.”

Western Branch eighth-grader Harry Holtzclaw said that if he ever makes it to the major leagues, he plans to buy a single ticket at every ballpark he plays in.

“That seat,” he said, “will be for Coach Caffee.”

Vicki Friedman, (757) 222-5218, vicki.friedman@pilotonline.com