Following the 1997 baseball season, Mike Mihalik Sr., resigned as the Emmaus baseball coach so he would have more time to spend with his son, who was a pretty good baseball player at Parkland High School.

Fast forward to the end of the 2014 season and Mihalik's successor, John Schreiner, left the program to spend more time watching his two sons play baseball at Northwestern Lehigh High School. Now, that young Parkland baseball player takes over the program that his dad coached.

"I haven't really talked to him about it, but I think it sort of brings us full circle," said Mike Mihalik Jr., who also coaches golf and teaches science at Emmaus. "If he would have kept coaching, he wouldn't have been able to see me play very much, so that's why he left."

After his playing days at Parkland, which he jokingly refers to as "the dark side," the younger Mihalik went on to the University of Delaware and was drafted by the Phillies in the 40th round of the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft. He spent that summer his only one in professional baseball pitching in the Phillies organization at three different minor league levels. One of those stops was in Clearwater, Florida, where Mihalik, a right-handed pitcher, played for Phillies Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, who dabbled at managing before deciding it wasn't for him.

"He was perhaps the most surprising person I ever met in baseball," said Mihalik. "Most people think that he just keeps to himself a lot, but I remember one time when he took the microphone on the bus and just started singing country and western songs. He was a different person around the team."

Mihalik spent some time as an assistant baseball coach at Southern Lehigh, but always thought about following in his dad's footsteps and coaching at Emmaus.

"I never really thought about a head coaching job anywhere else, but I was always ready to jump if the Emmaus job ever opened up.," he said. "There had been some rumors about Schreiner leaving and when he made it official, I knew that was the job that I wanted."

Schreiner compiled a 281-96 record at Emmaus and left the program in good shape, finishing with a 19-4 record this past season and making it to the district quarterfinals. Mihalik does inherit a team that lost nine seniors to graduation, but he believes there is still a lot to like about Emmaus baseball.

"I've always said that at Emmaus, you're never short on talent, but you do get short on experience sometimes," he said. "I think that might be where the program is right now, because I know there were a number of seniors that graduated who contributed a lot to the team."

Schreiner was known for having a passionate approach to the game and was often fiery. Mihalik has only seen a handful of games over the past few seasons and can't really compare his approach to Schreiner's.

"I don't know exactly what my style will be or how it will compare to his," Mihalik said. "I do know that we're going to play aggressive baseball and I'm going to have a positive approach with my team and try to get the most out of the players."

Mihalik has met some of his players and the team will start weight lifting and conditioning programs next week. You have to figure that even though winter hasn't officially begun, Mihalik is already counting the days to next spring when he puts his foot firmly in his father's footsteps at Emmaus.

"I think it's a neat thing," said Mihalik. "He gave up coaching to watch me play and now, I'm getting to coach at the same school. That's a great opportunity."