By James Windell
When Ryan Dorow was a senior at South Haven High School and played three sports, there was only one thought in his mind: Play, play, play!
Playing baseball and other sports was all he could think about. He never thought about coaching.
But after several years playing in the minor leagues, having a “cup of coffee” in the big leagues, suffering season-ending surgery on his shoulder, and being blessed with some great coaches, Dorow is focused these days on transforming boys into men as Hope College’s men’s baseball coach.
The former three-time All-American at Adrian College and Texas Rangers infielder became the Flying Dutchmen’s 10th head coach in May, 2024. He succeeded Stu Fritz, Hope’s most successful and longest-tenured baseball coach, who retired after 674 victories and 31 seasons. Dorow worked with Fritz the last two seasons, including in 2024 as an assistant coach and the Flying Dutchmen’s recruiting coordinator.
In a recent interview in his office at the DeVos Fieldhouse at Hope College, Dorow credits the outstanding coaches he was privileged to work with over the years for his change in attitude about what he wanted to do with his life after his playing days ended. It all started with baseball coach Dave McWhinnie at South Haven High School.
“He was a very knowledgeable coach who set us up for success going into each season,” Dorow said. “We still keep in touch and we talk about baseball all the time. I can’t say enough good things about him.”
After he graduated in 2024, he went on to Adrian College where he was the starting shortstop for all four years. He was drafted by the Texas Rangers and went into their farm system. As soon as he got to the minor leagues, he connected with Kenny Holmberg. Holmberg was a coach for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans before being named the organization’s minor league infield coordinator.
“He was a coach I connected with right off the bat,” Dorow says. “He challenged me but at the same time he guided me in the right direction as a baseball player and everything that goes along with it.”
Dorow says that Holmberg was good at the techniques of playing baseball, but he also always brought a very good vibe to workouts and practice. “That was something that I fed off of each and every day. He was able to show up with energy every day and that’s important because the young players relied on that. That’s something that I’ve tried to implement in my coaching as well.”
Dorow also got a lot from a hitting coach, too. “I was with Chase Lambin from rookie ball all the way up,” Dorow says. “One of the reasons I connected with him was because our backgrounds were similar. He, too, was a late-round pick, although out of the University of Texas. He was someone I wanted to learn so much from. He has helped me be a better dad and a better husband. Chase was really influential when I was going through it in the minor leagues. He was always in my corner teaching me the ropes on how to handle things.”
Not only did Dorow an outstanding coach at South Haven High School in McWhinnie, but he was surrounded by excellent athletes as teammates. He remembers that the whole starting baseball lineup in his senior year went on to play either college baseball or basketball. Some of those teammates have remained close friends. In fact, Travis Stricklin is now one of his assistant coaches as outfield coach at Hope College.
After he graduated from Adrian College, Dorow was drafted by the Texas Rangers and would play his way up to AAA’s Round Rock Express team before being called up to the major leagues by the Rangers in 2021.
Although he readily admits he didn’t have a stellar major league career wearing number 74 on his jersey, he did learn a lot about himself and about life through the experience. “The one thing that I learned is how to fail,” he says candidly. “Baseball is much more than just playing and making the highlight reels. That’s what I try to teach my kids here at Hope. I want them to understand that failure is a part of baseball. I want young players to understand how to fail and to recognize that it is part of the game.”
Now married to Macy, his wife of six years, and with two young children at home, Ryan Dorow views his job as coach with the maturity that has come out of his baseball experiences. “As coach, we obviously want to win games, and we will win games,” he says. “But that’s not the only thing I’m supposed to do. We want our players to have transformational experiences here.
“Tim Schoonveld, our Athletic Director, preaches that day in and day out. It’s very rewarding to look back and three or four years later see someone grow into a man. We want to transform young men into becoming better men. We want them to see that baseball is just a microcosm of life and an introduction to what life is really is about.
“Our job is to promote really good men who are going to excel in the next stage of life and be outstanding parents and husbands; sons and grandsons. We want to show our kids the coach loves baseball, but he also loves them unconditionally for other things that go on in their life. That’s what winning really is.”
