This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Nearing the end of what can only be considered a successful first year as a high school baseball head coach, Woods Cross' Trevor Amicone reflects on his own coaching influences.

Amicone, whose Wildcats have reeled off 11-game and 10-game winning streaks this year, goes where you would expect with the first few people he names. One is recent Woods Cross coach Paul Ayala, with whom Amicone regularly speaks. Second is Clark Stringfellow, baseball coach at Bountiful, because that's where Amicone was last season as an assistant.

But third?

Mom.

When Trevor Amicone was playing high school baseball at Jordan High, his mother, Mary Kay Amicone, was the head coach for the Beetdiggers. Currently the softball coach for Weber State, Mary Kay became the first female high school baseball head coach in state history when she joined Jordan.

She ended up coaching Trevor during his sophomore and junior seasons at Jordan, and all those lessons weren't lost on him.

"My mom is the biggest influence of all. From coaching me and watching her coach, from Day One, she's been the biggest teacher of the game for me," Trevor Amicone said.

"That doesn't surprise me that he'd say that," said Marc Amicone, Trevor's father and Mary Kay's husband. "He's followed her around for a long time."

Though not a baseball coach himself, like everyone else in his immediate family — even youngest son Derek is an assistant at Utah Valley University — Marc Amicone is hardly lacking a diamond pedigree. He is, after all, the general manager for the Salt Lake Bees, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels.

With the family now stretched from Ogden to Orem and points in between, it's rare that the Amicone clan can all assemble for a day at the ballpark.

"It still means the world to me when they come. I still look [in the stands] for them every day," Trevor said.

But they do assemble as a family on occasion, and conversation, just like in years past, often revolves around baseball and softball — a sort-of "Around the Horn" shop talk.

"We talk strategies and 'What would you do?' It's a lot of fun," Mary Kay said. "I think the only time we put up the white flag is when anyone has suffered a traumatic loss. Everything's off the table; it's just 'Let them have some space.'

"You kind of know what to anticipate, because we've all been through it," she added.

Mary Kay moved to Utah with her family from California and then played two years of softball at Weber State before the program was temporarily shut down. She then took her bat to the University of Utah for two more years of college ball. Marc, meanwhile, played baseball at Granger High before becoming a Ute himself, graduating in 1979.

The BYU softball program started with Mary Kay Amicone as its first coach, and she led the Cougars to the Mountain West Conference championship in 2001. Mary Kay also had a long stint as the softball coach at Salt Lake Community College (2006-2013), along with her current job at Weber State.

But it's her role as Jordan's baseball coach that is most interesting to Trevor Amicone's bunch of Wildcats.

"They've heard the stories," Trevor said. "She [sent a player to] pinch-hit for me 12 times in my junior year. I was not having the best year at the plate, and it made for some very interesting conversations at the dinner table."

Trevor had sort of a circuitous route to the dugout, but the circle was always around the baseball field. Before getting an assistant's job at Bountiful last season, he was a commentator on radio broadcasts for the Pioneer League's Orem Owlz.

His mother admitted that she was surprised Trevor, now 28, took a few years before coming around to coaching.

"I guess a little bit, because I've seen how great he is at teaching kids," Mary Kay said. "Ultimately, I thought he would go that direction a few years ago, but it took him a while to find his passion for it."

"I broadcasted baseball for a while, and that's about as far away as I've gotten," Trevor said.

As Woods Cross prepares for the Class 4A playoffs, Trevor says that certain technical skills learned from his mother are now part of his regular coaching regimen.

"But more so, she taught me that coaching baseball is really all about coaching people," Trevor said. "As much as you can know about the game, it's so much more important to know human beings. How they act and how they respond to certain things.

"She is so good at that, and that's why she's had success everywhere she's gone," he added. "Knowing how to get them up in certain situations and do what she wants them to do. That's the biggest thing I've learned from her."