SHREWSBURY, Mass. - This Father’s Day weekend will hold a special meaning for the father-son coaching duo of Saint John's High School's baseball team as they are set to play in the state championship on Saturday.

What You Need To Know

  • Casey Cummins is the head baseball coach at Saint John's High School. His father, Timothy, is an assistant coach for the team. Cummins' brother in-law, Jeff Bercume, is on the coaching staff as well
  • Saint John's will play BC High in the MIAA Division 1 baseball final on June 15

  • This year marks Cummins' first season as head coach at Saint John's
  • After growing up being coached by their father, Tim, both Casey and his younger brother Micah graduated from Saint John's ('08 & '13) having played baseball for four years

The head coach for Saint John’s baseball says for him, the sport is all about family.

“I was born into a baseball family. I was named after Casey at the Bat, the poem that was written in Worcester," Casey Cummins said. "I didn't really have a choice, I'd say from out of the womb as far as being a baseball fan, living in a baseball family.”

Cummins said he has his father to thank for his love of the game.

“Everything I know about the game," Cummins said. "I can credit to him.”

“Since I was six years old, my dad took me to Fenway Park, everything in our family revolves around baseball," Tim Cummins said. "My wife thankfully embraced baseball when we first started dating and kind of realized that that was going to be part of her life too.”

Tim Cummins is in his 60th year of baseball with a long resume from playing, to coaching, to currently scouting at the professional level.

Now, also serving as an assistant coach for Saint John’s, he said his son is building a great career in the game as well.

“It's very impressive when you see his resume for coaching," Cummins said.

He's 33 years old, he's coached with a lot of people who have a lot of experience, a lot of coaches that have done 30 years, he's learned from them. And I think he just brings a lot of that expertise and experience with him to the program.”

Casey said all the credit this year goes to the Saint John’s players who will face BC High in the MIAA Division 1 State Final on Saturday, and the whole family is looking forward to it.

“It would be a great Father's Day gift to bring home a state championship in our first year with both of us on the staff, it would be pretty incredible," Cummins said. "It's also his birthday as well as my son's birthday yesterday.”

“It's a big, big weekend for the for the family," Cummins said, "and a nice win would top it off.”

Win or lose for the Pioneers the Cummins father-son duo is thankful for another year of baseball together.

“No matter what happens Saturday, it's been an awesome opportunity to be able to share the dugout with him," Cummins said. "I'm not here - as a coach, as a man, as a player, as a dad - without him, for sure.”

“I am a very proud dad," Cummins said. "Very proud dad, very proud grandfather too.”