Like father, like son

This preseason game was Dakoda Grove’s first as a head coach. He graduated Bethune-Cookman University, where he spent his last season on the team as a volunteer assistant coach — coaching outfielders and first base.

“I’m interested to see his demeanor,” Scott Grove said. “He’s probably a lot more calm than I am and laid-back. He probably has a better aura about him. I’m trying to get better at that as long as I’ve been coaching, but I think being too competitive might hurt at times. I think he has a more balanced demeanor.”

Scott Grove has been coaching baseball for 26 years and has been the head baseball coach at The First Academy for the past decade. During Dakoda Grove’s years in high school, he played under his dad as part of the Roy- als’ varsity baseball team.

“I don’t think I’ll learn too much (about my dad), because I’ve played under him,” Dakoda Grove said. “I think it’s more exciting just to see our players play against TFA and Viera, two teams that will probably be the best teams we’ll play all year just so they can see what good baseball looks like whether we win or lose.”

Baseball Roots

Both, Scott and Dakoda Grove started playing baseball at a young age.

“I didn’t have a background where my dad played baseball, but I grew up in Denver, Colorado, where I started Little League,” Scott Grove said. “It’s different in Colorado than Florida, just because when it’s football season, you play football, when it’s basketball season, you play bas - ketball. Here, it’s just more professional, more specific where everybody picks a sport at a young age and they play it through their whole life.”

Scott Grove share his love of baseball with his son, who remembers growing up on a baseball field, going to games and recording stats with his grandfather, Ron Cowley.

This game was the first of the two games that are part of the First Pitch Classic.

“It’s strange that it is on Valentine’s Day, but it kind of started when he (Dakoda) got the job,” Scott Grove said. “We wanted (to play him), because it’s the First Pitch Classic — the two preseason games that we play (every year), and that’s the week that we’ve always played it — Tuesday and Thursday before the regular season. (This year) it just happened to fall on Valentine’s Day.”