The Glove Doctor: State champion football coach also repairs baseball gloves for Byron

Perhaps no piece of sporting equipment is more personal than a baseball glove.

“It has a certain feel and a comfort level and a confidence,” Byron coach Dale Hartman said. “I’ve coached players who don’t want anyone else even touching their glove, let alone trying it on and playing catch with it.”

So he knew catcher Kyle Jones was a little rattled when one of his laces snapped in warmups before Byron’s first tough Big Northern Conference game of the year, against perennial power Rock Falls.

“The glove is hugely important at the catching position,” Hartman said. “That ball is going to be touching that mitt almost every play.”

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Luckily, Byron has a glove doctor on call. That repair man is former Byron shortstop Jeff Boyer , who played for Hartman 24 years ago. And is far better known for leading Byron to its three state football titles, quarterbacking the undefeated team in 1999 and coaching the Tigers to a pair of undefeated Class 3A titles in two of the last three years.

“We called up my football coach and Coach Boyer fixed it in like 10 minutes,” said Jones, who is one of eight Byron baseball starters who also started on the school’s state football championship team last fall. “I thought that was pretty cool.”

Boyer was doing yard work when he got a call from a Byron assistant coach. By the time Jones’ dad drove the glove to his house, Boyer had his repair kit out and was ready to work.

“I laced it as fast as I possibly could,” Boyer said. “I was under pressure there.”

Jones got his catcher’s mitt back by the second inning.

“Mine is important to me,” Jones said. “I had to switch to this random Wilson glove that I had never used before. I wasn’t used to the way it was broken in. I dropped two pitches that were right down the middle because I wasn’t used to how the glove felt. That could have been the difference between winning and losing a game.”

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That game, a 6-3 win over Rock Falls, turned out to be the second-closest league win of the year for Byron (26-4, 16-2), which won its first conference title in 10 years.

Boyer’s glove service was an example of the type of inter-sport cooperation some schools can have. Byron is one of the best at that. Eric Yerly, for instance, has coached Byron’s girls basketball team to two state titles in the last decade. He is also a longtime assistant coach on Boyer’s football staff.

"All our coaches," Jones said, "get involved outside of the sport they actually coach.”

But only one serves as an on-call repair man.

“It’s pretty awesome that Jeff does that,” Hartman said. “He’s a selfless teacher and coach. He played baseball for me. It’s pretty cool that we still have that friendship and bond and we try to help each other out, whether it’s talking with athletes, trying to help motivate kids or help them out with something like fixing a glove. It’s a small thing, but it’s a huge thing — especially when it breaks right before a game.”

Boyer has been repairing baseball gloves for 20 years, since his first coaching job as an assistant baseball and football coach at Rochelle in 2004.

“I had a kid or two at Rochelle who broke a lace when I first started,” Boyer said. “I just picked up a kit from Wal-Mart and started fixing gloves. Word spread that I could do it. Now if a kid breaks a lace, it ends up being me that fixes it. Every glove is a little different, the way the leather is laced inside the glove. Once you figure out where the strings are going and follow the broken lace, it’s not hard.”

Boyer even brings his kit with him when he attends his son’s youth league games. He is always ready to help out. That, he says, is the Byron way.

“Byron is a great community,” Boyer said. “I grew up in Byron. Coach Hartman was my coach. Anything I can do to help the program out, I am happy to do it at any time. I am sure all those guys would say the same about football. I coached Kyle and a lot of other kids on the baseball team. If I can help those kids out in any way, I always will.”

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: The Glove Doctor: State champion football coach also repairs baseball gloves for Byron