Like Father, Like Daughter: Kyle and Kylie Gross Leading Teams in FGCL

The weekends spent at the softball field with her father were supposed to end once Kylie Gross finished playing at the University of Toledo. She didn’t want to follow her dad into coaching. She was ready to trade in her uniform for a pantsuit and join a huge marketing firm.

Kyle Gross had once mentioned the idea of coaching to his daughter while she was in high school in Heath, Ohio and she seemed repulsed by the very idea.

“No way!” she told him. “When I am done, I am done. I am never coaching.”

But after she received an offer to get her master’s degree paid for while serving as a graduate assistant at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota during the 2019 season, Kylie had a change of heart.

“I figured I was young and had all the time in the world to keep working in business,” she said. “But I realized how much I loved making relationships with the players and giving back to the sport when I was coaching.”

That means Kylie and Kyle will be spending Father’s Day doing what they love most together again. Both are head coaches in the Florida Gulf Coast League this summer.

Kyle, 47, is the head coach of the Lakewood Ranch Rodeo and Kylie, 27, is the head coach of the Myakka City RiverMocs. The father and daughter will coach against each other for the first time on June 26th.

“I think his ideal Father’s Day would be spent at the ballpark all day,” Kylie said. “I think that is the best gift you can give him honestly.”

Kyle Gross is the head coach at Hillsdale College, a Division II program in Michigan. He arrived at Hillsdale in 2019 after assistant coaching stints at Presbyterian College and Kent State. He also served as the interim head coach at Toledo for the 2013-14 school year, just missing the chance to reunite with Kylie, who arrived to play for the Rockets as a freshman in 2014-15.

Kyle had coached Kylie for nearly her entire softball career. They shared the same dugout in rec ball, travel ball and high school.

“Our relationship has really been centered around softball. People or other family members will come over to the house and say, ‘Those two will just talk softball,’” Kyle said. “It’s not like a planned thing. There is just always some story college softball-wise to discuss.”

Kyle was a police officer for the first 15 years of his professional career. He started at age 21 before realizing he wanted to coach as much as possible.

“If you find something you love doing and can find a way to get paid for it then you never work a day in your life,” Kyle said. “I am lucky enough and fortunate enough that I was able to retire early from law enforcement and I’ve been coaching softball ever since. Every day I wake up and get to go have fun.”

Once Kylie joined the staff at Blacks Hill State, she understood why her father loved it so much. She spent two seasons assisting her father at Hillsdale before getting hired as an assistant coach at Kent State in 2022.

Kyle wanted his daughter as his assistant in the FGCL this summer as Lakewood Ranch attempted to defend its title. But FGCL executive director Ryan Moore offered a different option when they all met at the NFCA Convention. He wanted Kylie to be a head coach for the summer collegiate league.

“It didn’t really dawn on me that was an option or that he would want to do that,” Kyle said. “I lost a good assistant coach, but I am so happy for her and I think it makes it even more fun. The league is great and this just kind of adds to the experience down here.”

Kylie jumped at the chance to lead her own team.

“Absolutely. I want to go down there and try it and beat my dad,” she said. “I told my team I want us to have fun and I want us to win the whole thing and be competitive. But on June 26th, we have only one goal and that is to beat Lakewood Ranch.”

Kyle calls softball a “blessing to his family.” It’s taken them to fields all across the country and provided numerous bonding opportunities that would never have otherwise been possible.

Kyle even got the chance to umpire with his children when he, Kylie and his son, Cody, all worked together one summer. 

“She didn’t follow in my footsteps with that,” Kyle said with a laugh. “I kept going and she hated every minute of it. But she does have an appreciation for the work umpires do now.”

As competitive as they both are, Kyle and Kylie are making sure to savor the time spent together in Florida this summer. Their teams have done joint hitting sessions and Kyle has thrown front toss to Kylie’s players.

“It’s something very special. Not everybody gets to do this with their daughter,” Kyle said. “They sometimes call travel ball ‘daddy ball’ and the relationships with dads and daughters don’t really work out. But we’ve just always been able to take it all the way from travel ball to high school to college and now as coaches.”

As for the future? Kyle already has a plan lined up for his second retirement.

“I hope to be her assistant one of these days,” he said. “That would be a great Father’s Day present down the line.”