Math Teacher, Student Reunite As Manager, Player For Orleans Firebirds

ORLEANS – Walking around the halls of Loyola High School in Los Angeles, Adam Magpoc always knew his algebra teacher, Kelly Nicholson, was a manager on the Cape in the country’s most prestigious collegiate summer baseball league.

 Before Magpoc even committed to play baseball at Boston College, he knew what Nicholson was about — his emphasis on professionalism and punctuality. Nicholson didn’t coach at Loyola, but Magpoc was familiar with his math instructor’s knowledge of the game. 

Only later — this summer with Orleans in his second season on the Cape — would Magpoc experience firsthand how Nicholson coaches just like he teaches. The reunion on the opposite coast took time. From Nicholson’s perspective, Magpoc had to change for it to happen. But the teacher and student are back together in the Firebirds dugout, a couple thousand miles from Southern California.

“He was always the first one to tell me be a professional on and off the field,” Magpoc said.

Nicholson, Orleans’ manager of more than two decades, didn’t like Magpoc coming out of high school. Yes, Magpoc passed his class at Loyola, where he’s taught for going on 44 years, but he didn’t like the way Magpoc played baseball. Magpoc had fun playing high school ball, and he showed it on the field.

Nicholson wasn’t formally involved with the Loyola team, but he always watched the games. With Magpoc later playing college ball, Nicholson outright didn’t want to take him on as a player for Orleans.

Magpoc went to Brewster, where he played 33 games for the Whitecaps, led the league in stolen bases and was named the team’s most valuable player last year. Earlier this season back in Brewster, he broke the club’s career steals record.

 “I didn't like all of his antics in high school,” Nicholson said. “I wasn't going to reward that, but I think he's grown up, and after watching him play last summer, I think he kind of gets the way that we do things.”

 This was no secret to Magpoc, who had a predilection for bat flips in high school. There was one bat flip one time that may have been a bit much. Nicholson saw it. He brought Magpoc aside after the game and told him to watch a clip of what Derek Jeter did after his 3,000th hit, a solo homer. The Hall of Fame shortstop, an inner circle legend for the New York Yankees, had simply put his bat down and jogged around the bases.

 “It was in New York in a major league stadium off of David Price in a major league game, and he was super classy and humble and respectful about the way he conducted himself when he ran around the bases,” Nicholson said. “And if Jeter can do it, we all can do it.”

Magpoc, though, rightfully earned his redemption in the eyes of his former math teacher on a visit to Eldredge Park during his MVP season with Brewster last year. That evening, Magpoc struck a leadoff home run at Orleans’ home field. He laid the bat down and ran hard around the bases. Nicholson saw it. 

He texted Magpoc after the game to say it was fun watching him play, that he was proud of the kind of ballplayer he had become.

“It was nice to hear from him, especially coming from him,” Magpoc said. “I have a lot of respect for him as a coach and as a teacher, so it was a nice full-circle moment.”

Said Nicholson: “He hit a homer and ran the bases respectfully. I was proud of him. I was genuinely happy to see him do well against us.”

They didn’t know it then, but that at-bat — in essence — brought Magpoc to Orleans to play for Nicholson and was the turning point in their relationship. 

With Magpoc back on the Cape for a second summer after transferring from Boston College and playing his first season at San Diego State, Brewster’s outfield earlier this year became crowded. Magpoc wasn’t getting the playing time he wanted, and as close as he was with Whitecaps manager Jamie Shevchik and the rest of the club, he felt it best to make his way into a different lineup. A rising senior, he wanted to do everything he could to get on the field.

Still considering staying in Brewster and toughing out the situation, Magpoc reached out to Nicholson to see what he would say about having him. Then Shevchik also reached out to Nicholson, and Magpoc — with a switch of host families — was making the short trip over to Orleans as a newly minted Firebird at the end of June.

“It was a very quick and easy transition, and I've loved it ever since,” Magpoc said.

The relationship remains similar to what it was at Loyola. Nicholson even brought out one of Magpoc’s English teachers, who’s also in baseball in Southern California, for a week with Orleans. It was funny to Magpoc, seeing them all in the dugout like that.

“It's a very teacher-student relationship,” Magpoc said. “I have a lot to learn from him, just watching his mannerisms and how he goes about his day. It's very professional, and it's something that I'm definitely going to bring into the next step in my career.”

For Nicholson, a former student of his from Loyola playing on the Cape actually isn’t anything new. It’s happened before during Nicholson’s 25 years with Orleans.

But the feeling is the same for Nicholson — the boundaries of the teacher-disciple dynamic aren’t limited to a classroom setting.

“When they're in the dugout, they're students, right?” he said. “It's just a different environment, but it's not any different. We're just teaching a different subject.”

After getting reps in left field with Brewster last month, Magpoc is now mostly seeing time at second base for Orleans. The switch-hitting utility man has played more than 50 games and counting across two years in the Cape League. Whether as a Whitecap or a Firebird, he’s etched his name as a Cape ball mainstay, rare in an age where players can spend as little as a few days here before departing. 

He said last year was probably one of the best summers of his life. 

“There's no better summer than being in the Cape,” Magpoc said. “So baseball is one thing, but the general experience that these players get in this league is phenomenal, and it's something that they're going to remember for lifetimes.”

Like the bat flips and the hard runs around the bases, Nicholson notices Magpoc’s extended tenure on the Cape.  

“It's nice to see guys stay,” he said. “It's rare. Players are pretty selfish these days, and they get up here, and they don't think about the team much. And their college coaches don't think much about commitment and loyalty to what we're trying to do up here, and they don't have any problem taking them home before our season ends. 

“And I don't think college coaches would like us taking their players in May and bringing them up here before their season ended, but they don't care. So when you get a kid that cares and wants to stay, you're going to take those guys every day and twice on Sunday.

“Make sure and print that,” Nicholson said. “And send it to every college coach in the country.”