Growing up a baseball coach’s son paved the way for Checotah High School sophomore Bronson Bouher to grow up to love the game.

“My dad played college ball and my brother Brody played and went on to play junior college baseball, so I guess I just come by it naturally,” said Bronson who is also the quarterback on the Wildcats football team and runs sprints and relays on the track team.

As it turns out, his dad, Brett, has also been his high school baseball coach for the past couple of years and having grown up in a similar situation, the elder Bouher notes the ups and downs of the father-son dynamic.

“Coaching your own kid is probably harder on the kid than the adult. Growing up, my dad was my coach and there were some situations where you just kept your mouth shut and kept on grinding but there were also some rewarding parts of it too. As a high school coach, I didn’t get to coach him much when he was younger except sometimes in the summer but coaching him here at Checotah the last couple of years has been fun,” said coach Bouher.

This year Bronson leads the team in hitting with a .479 average as well as runs scored and stolen bases and that talent has helped him become a team leader and avoid some of the pitfalls of being the “coach’s kid.”

“I really haven’t gotten a lot of grief about being his son because I think they know I’m probably one of the better players and we’re so young. I lead by having a positive attitude knowing that if something goes wrong, we just have to move on. I like to motivate them vocally when I can but also show them that I’m putting in the work to get better.”

Although he’s just got one season of baseball behind him, there is one moment from his freshman year that Bronson cherishes.

“I just remember a game last year where I had a 13 pitch at bat and ended up getting a walk-off base on balls which was neat.”

Bronson has a couple of goals in mind for this spring in baseball.

“I’d really like to hit at least .500 and improve my curve ball a lot. We’ve struggled early but I think this will help us get better later in the season and on into next year.”