By Ronnie Gallagher
rgallagher@salisburypost.com
If you ever need the services of Jeff Bernhardt, just ride over to Salisbury Community Park on Hurley School Road. He’ll be around there somewhere, surrounded by his family members.
All 615 of them.
Bernhardt is the president of Rowan Little League and he treats every single child like one of his own and every adult like his best friend.
An ordinary night for Bernhardt?
He arrives with 8-year-old son Cade at 4:45 p.m. He checks in at the concession stand and then walks about 30 yards toward one of the complex’s six fields.
“Hey, Zach, how’s your arm,” he says, patting the head of the first kid he meets.
“Hey, Malquon, been hitting the ball?” he says with a smile at the second kid he meets.
Longtime board member Dan Wales walks up to Bernhardt, who points to a little girl sitting with her mother.
“I need her to play softball,” he tells Wales.
Umpire Steve Love comes over to give Bernhardt a playful hug.
His phone rings. Wife Lynn (“the real president of the league,” Bernhardt says) is on the other end, wanting to make sure there’s enough help in the concession stand.
“She’s got help,” he assures Lynn. “Tracy’s in there.”
Before the night is over, Bernhardt has joked with practically every coach and parent in attendance. He has coached a game. He has discussed rules. He has helped a kid find his glove. He listens to a customer wonder why the concession stand has no onions for his hamburger.
He recalls the night he had to stroke the brow of an out-of-towner from eastern North Carolina who complained there was something wrong with the slaw on his barbecue sandwich. Bernhardt quickly set that guy straight.
“I told him, ‘We eat red slaw on our barbecue, not white. This is Rowan County.’ ”
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Rowan County is known not only for its red slaw but for having one of the state’s top Little League programs, and Bernhardt is a major reason why. In his third year as president, he has proven to be unflappable when it comes to any dilemma. His “aw-shucks-we’ll-get-it-fixed” attitude and easygoing nature is enough to gain the confidence of everyone. The little league’s popularity probably has something to do with Rowan numbers increasing while the recession has hit other leagues hard.
At a recent district meeting, leagues from around the state reported their numbers were down 10, 20, even 50 percent.
Rowan Little League? Up 15 percent.
Seven years ago, the league had 26 teams. Today, it fields 52 in four softball and five baseball leagues. And there’s Bernhardt’s personal favorite: the Challenger League for handicapped kids.
Rowan added a 15- to-16-year-old boys baseball league for the first time. Bernhardt also coordinates for Spencer and East Rowan leagues as well.
It’s enough to boggle the mind of an ordinary Joe. Not Bernhardt, who is immersed in Little League decisions from January through October.
“I have a laptop, a Blackberry and a cell phone,” he said with a laugh. “Every day, you think it’s overwhelming, but then you get out here and realize it’s where you want to be.”
Lynn, Cade and the Bernhardts’ 11-year-old twins, Hunter and Tyler, always seem to be at the park.
“This is a family thing,” Bernhardt explained. “We’re here four, sometimes five, nights a week and on Saturdays. It’s our life. We usually leave about 9:45 every night and we’re exhausted. Homework gets done in the van riding down the road.
“But this is the happiest thing in the world for us. We don’t say no. That’s our problem.”
Bernhardt’s compassion shined through this year. He refused to say no to families hard-hit by the recession. He figures if a kid wants to play ball, he should play ball.
“There have been problems with the economy and Freightliner layoffs,” Bernhardt said. “If there’s a hardship, they’re not going to be turned away.”
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Bernhardt, a 1981 graduate of West Rowan, is more than just an administrator. He is either an assistant or head coach of three teams: 11-12 boys, 9-10 boys and 6-7-8 girls softball.
You haven’t seen fun until you watch Wales in his pink shirt and Bernhardt in his neon green squaring off as coaches, cheering on little girls.
“We were trying to figure out who would look the funniest in pink and Dan said, ‘That would be me,’ ” Bernhardt said wth a chuckle.
Girls softball has been a big draw, Bernhardt said. He pointed out it may be the only time you’ll see three macho football coaches being calm on a field.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, one team had the daughter of Carson’s Mark Woody and the other fielded the daughter of West Rowan’s Scott Young. And who was on the mound pitching to the young girls? That’s right, Catawba’s Chip Hester, whose daughter also plays.
“Coaching girls softball is the most relaxing thing I’ve ever done,” Bernhardt said. “They’re all my little girls. It’s a lot of fun. Watching Chip Hester pitch to the girls is hilarious.”
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Bernhardt’s nickname is “El Presidente” to some adults. But most just ask for the “tall guy.”
And what the tall guy wants is more than six fields.
“We could use about three more,” he said. “Are we ever going to get more fields? That comes down to the economy.”
There are amazing crowds nightly, according to Bernhardt, who added, “You may see 10 to 12 games on any given night. I’ve come out here on one of the rare nights one of my kids wasn’t playing and just watched.”
Those are the nights the bleachers are full, the concession stand needs more manpower and there are twice as many questions to be answered.
Everyone knows who to turn to: the tall guy.
So Bernhardt may be forced into action, cooking up burgers, coaching a team, coming up with solutions or maybe, just maybe, heading to the store to buy that onion a paying customer so dearly desires.
“I asked him why he keeps doing it,” Lynn said. “He said it’s for the kids.”
When it comes to retiring, Bernhardt is like Charles Barkley. He has trouble walking away.
“I keep telling myself this might be the last year,” he said.
And then, Bernhardt comes back.
“I just love helping kids,” he said.
All 615 of them.