Why Josh Robertson retired from professional baseball to coach at Trinity Academy
Another baseball season has come and gone in the life of Josh Robertson, this most recent one perhaps his favorite yet in a career full of noteworthy accomplishments.
The oldest brother of Wichita’s royal family of baseball, Josh never reached professional baseball like his brothers Nate, Luke and Matt, but he carved out his own path in professional baseball as a successful front office executive with the Wichita Wranglers, Wichita Wingnuts and most recently Cleburne Railroaders.
But after more than two decades in the front office, Robertson retired from professional baseball this past year to return to Wichita and put on a uniform again as the head baseball coach at Trinity Academy, the same program he started from scratch in 1999.
With Robertson back, Trinity excelled this season: the Knights won the Central Plains League championship and reached a Class 3A regional final, but saw their season end on Wednesday with an 11-0 loss to Collegiate.
But Trinity’s success was only part of the reason why Robertson enjoyed this season maybe more than any other. The real joy for him was experiencing it with his family that includes his wife, Monica, and their two daughters, Klara and Layla.
It was particularly special because Robertson was able to spend more time than ever before with Klara, his oldest daughter who is a sophomore at Trinity and a player on the softball team.
“She basically grew up at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium from the time she was a baby,” Robertson said. “We were playing 142 games with the Wranglers and then 100 games in 110 days with the Wingnuts, so I missed out on a lot of things in her life. I’ve got to spend more time with her this year than I ever have in her entire life, so that’s been my favorite part of being back. Not just what we’ve accomplished as a team, but just spending time with my family.”
Robertson remembers countless conversations with former Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper, who also had a daughter around the same age when the two worked together from 2009-16, about the difficulty of missing out on moments in their children’s’ lives.
It always pained him when he had to leave in the middle of one of Klara’s softball games.
“It’s tough because you want to stay there and watch and support your kid and cheer them on, but at the same time you’re the general manager of a professional baseball team,” Robertson said. “You’ve got to be at the stadium making sure everything is running smoothly. A lot of times I made sure to give her the customary hand wave, like ‘Hey, dad made it’ and then take off.”
During this spring, Robertson has been able to sneak over to the softball field before or after the baseball team’s practice to watch his daughter. He was even able to take off from baseball practice early last week to catch every pitch of Klara’s final regular-season doubleheader.
“Now I get to throw some sunflower seeds in the mouth and sit there and tell the umpires how bad they are and just be a regular dad,” Robertson said. “That’s the special part to me: I’m not in a rush anymore just to say that I was there like it used to be. Now I actually get to spend quality time and go in the dugout and talk with her about the next at-bat or her release point in her pitching. It’s more quantity and more quality.”
That has been a welcomed change for Robertson, who had lived away from his family during the baseball season since 2019 before retiring as general manager of the Cleburne (Texas) Railroaders after last season.
He made the drive back and forth from Wichita to Cleburne, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and a straight shot on I-35, that he could do it “blindfolded” now. But there were stretches where he would go weeks without seeing his family, up to 23 days at one point.
Robertson said his wife, Monica, has been the “superstar” of the family, excelling in her own business while raising their two daughters. The couple has been together since they were seniors in college and will celebrate their 20th year of marriage this fall.
“We started dating when I was a ball player and she has been through the whole gamut with me in my baseball journey,” Robertson said. “She’s my biggest supporter and there’s no way I could have accomplished what I did without her. I’ve been very blessed with my baseball career and my family has been a big part of that.”
Being back at Trinity has given Robertson plenty of nostalgic vibes this spring.
He laughs when recalling his memories from 1998 before the school was even built and students were taking classes inside Central Community Church with the baseball team playing its games at Westurban.
“My dad was the manager at Westurban and I worked out a deal with him where our players would go out there and help them get the fields ready and then we didn’t have to pay for our home games there,” Robertson said.
Nearly a quarter-century later, Robertson couldn’t pass up the opportunity to return to the program he helped create.
And true to his family roots, the first thing Robertson did when he took the job was to make sure Trinity had the finest natural grass field around.
“He has literally turned that field into a work of art,” Trinity assistant coach Grant Norris said. “It’s got to be better than some college fields in Kansas. His attention to detail is unmatched and Josh is just a tireless worker. He’s kind of a perfectionist when it comes to baseball fields and you can tell because it is absolutely amazing.”
Trinity was coming off a season where a mostly inexperienced roster finished with a 9-12 record. Robertson’s arrival raised the expectations and Trinity was able to surprise outsiders by winning the league title with just two seniors this season.
Senior Connor Davis (.440 average, 2-2 record with 0.91 ERA), a Butler Community College commit, and junior Easton Norris (.420 average, 5-1 record with 2.72 ERA) have been the standouts, while players like Matt Omunsden, Decker Hayes, Jack Cary, Joaquin Sanchez, Braden Roberts, Alex Probert and Ethan Eberbardt also helped the Knights.
“It’s certainly been an adjustment when you’re used to watching Double-A and big-league guys roll up double plays and drop 400-foot bombs over the fence,” Robertson said. “Now I’m working with 15, 16, 17-year-old kids and the game slows down quite a bit. It’s been an adjustment for me and it was an adjustment for the kids to get used to my stole. I take an old-school approach to the game. It’s been a fun season, but don’t get me wrong, I’ve had to ask for God’s grace on a couple of different occasions.”
Robertson doesn’t deny there’s a part of him that still misses professional baseball. He had a good thing going in Cleburne, turning its franchise into a league power much like he did with the Wingnuts.
But he has a better thing going right now in Wichita and Robertson says that helps him feel at ease about his decision to retire from professional baseball.
“The toughest thing for any ball player to do is knowing when the right time is to walk away,” Robertson said. “I’m always going to miss the places I’ve been, but I had a lot of fun with Trinity and we had a lot of success with a pretty young team. I think we are set up to be even better and better for the upcoming years and I have a lot to look forward to in the future and the new challenges that come with it.”
Kansas high school baseball regional game scores
Class 6A
Manhattan regional
Manhattan 9, Wichita Southeast 0
Wichita Northwest 5, Wichita Heights 4
Manhattan 9, Wichita Northwest 0
Lawrence Free State regional
Lawrence Free State 1, Junction City 0
Dodge City 6, Wichita West 4
Lawrence Free State 10, Dodge City 0
Class 5A
Bishop Carroll regional
Bishop Carroll 3, Salina Central 0
Goddard 10, Andover Central 0
Bishop Carroll 7, Goddard 6
Class 4A
Clay Center regional
Clay Center 5, Wellington 2
Chapman 12, Augusta 0
Clay Center 3, Chapman 1
Class 3A
Wichita Collegiate regional
Wichita Collegiate 11, Wichita Trinity 0
Class 2-1A
Sedan regional
Bluestem 7, Burden-Central 6
West Elk 15, Sedan 0
West Elk 12, Bluestem 6
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