GRAND RAPIDS – Chris Mokma found himself back on the pitching mound last spring, shaking off the rust after a five-year pro career.
But this time he was throwing to high schoolers as the first-year pitching coach for the South Christian baseball team.
“Last year, I did pitch live to them toward the end of the year,” Mokma said. “It was fun to see what I still had. I did give up a few hits.”
Mokma, a Holland Christian grad, will return to South Christian again next season, but this time as the head coach. South Christian announced on Tuesday that Mokma will be its new varsity coach.
“I’m excited,” he said. “South has a great program. I love being around the guys. We had a good group. I’m excited to keep working with them.”
Mokma pitched parts of five seasons in the Florida Marlins organization before retiring in 2024. He’s currently attending Grand Valley State where he’s close to graduating from the Seidman Business School with a degree in finance.
Mokma and his older brother Mike Mokma, helped Holland Christian win the Division 2 baseball state championship in 2016. Mike pitched two years of minor league baseball. He also was head coach at South Christian in 2023. Their dad, Scott Mokma, was his assistant coach.
So Chris is the third Mokma to coach at South Christian.
“Obviously, it speaks to the program,” Chris Mokma said. “We all wanted to be around it. Stems from my dad coaching us when we were young.”
Mokma said he loves what the future holds, with a lot of talented underclassmen last year. South Christian’s best starting pitcher was a freshman in Luke Spoelma.
“Luke is very talented and I’m here to help him realize that talent,” Mokma said. “We had four or five sophomores and a few more freshmen up late in the season in addition to Luke.”
Said Spoelma: “As a player, having Chris as a pitching coach was a blessing since pitching is one of the things I put a lot of time into. He always had some way to help my command or even my velocity. He always had something nice to say.”
South Christian was 17-15 last season.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Former pro, Holland native, Chris Mokma named head baseball coach at South Christian
Reporting by Lenny Padilla / The Holland Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
