Former Western Kentucky baseball volunteer assistant coach Tim Holmes is serving as the pitching coach for the Polish national team, which just competed this past week in the prestigious Prague Baseball Week in Czechia. (DAVID DRIVER)

PRAGUE, Czechia – After pitching for a club team in Australia last winter, former Western Kentucky volunteer assistant Tim Holmes learned about an opportunity to coach a baseball team in Poland.

“I wanted to get back into coaching. It was a good fit,” Holmes, 31, said.

A former minor league pitcher with the New York Yankees, Holmes agreed to coach KS Silesia Rybnik in the southwest part of Poland. But visa problems delayed his arrival while the club allowed 66 runs in their first seven games. After he arrived, Holmes’ pitching staff gave up 35 runs in the next seven games – a marked improvement.

Holmes feels that success drew the attention of the Polish national team – which tabbed the former WKU assistant to be the pitching coach in late June for the prestigious Prague Baseball Week in Czechia, one of the top countries for baseball in Europe. Poland began play Friday in Group B with a 6-5 win against Slovakia, beat Lithuania 11-1 on Saturday, lost to Switzerland 19-4 on Sunday dropped a 5-1 decision to Switzerland in a rematch Monday in the four-day event.

Holmes worked in Prague under head coach John McLaren, 73, a baseball lifer who grew up in Texas, managed Seattle and Washington in Major League Baseball and was on the coaching staff of several other MLB clubs. Among the players McLaren managed with the Mariners was new Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki.

“I knew about him; he is a legend,” Holmes said of McLaren, who played in the minors for Houston. “He has an incredible baseball mind. He has been around the game forever. Not many people on the planet know as much as him. You can learn an incredible amount from him, and he is an incredible, nice guy. He is willing to teach.”

“He is very knowledgeable guy. I enjoy talking to him. I think very highly of him,” McLaren said of Holmes.

Before the Prague event, the Polish national team worked out in Katowice, a city in southwest Poland of about 280,000 people nearly three hours southwest of capital Warsaw. Katowice is in the same region of the country when Holmes coached this spring in the Polish league.

Holmes, who pitched in two games this spring for KS Silesia Rybnik, has also pitched for teams in Canada, Austria and Czechia, formerly called the Czech Republic. He had never been to Poland before he landed the coaching job this spring.

WKU HELPED PAVE NEW PATH

The time Holmes spent in Bowling Green was pivotal for the right-hander, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, who posted an ERA of 0.59 in his only season in the minors in the New York Yankees’ system.

“I spent a few years coaching at Western Kentucky and I did private instruction in Bowling Green,” he said. “In that time, I ‘retired’ as a player. During that time, I figured out my body and while throwing the ball realized some of my shoulder issues were mechanical. I fixed those while working with kids.”

Some of the former Hilltoppers he worked with eventually made it to pro ball. That includes Michael Darrell-Hicks, a pitcher who made his MLB debut in April with the Angels and was selected off waivers by the Pirates on June 13.

Holmes has seen a lot of the world since leaving Bowling Green, where he also worked at the Grind Baseball Center as a pitching instructor and college placement director.

But he still had the desire to pitch again.

“One of best friends called and said, ‘I am playing in Vienna (Austria), would you like to come out.’ Last spring (in 2024) I was the pitcher of the year. Then last winter I went to Australia, where I was a player and coach,” he said. “That is when I decided to make the baseball jobs overseas profile for a website.

Holmes worked at WKU under former head coach John Pawlowski, who now works at the IMG Academy in Florida.

“It was an incredible challenge – I learned a lot,” Holmes said of his time at WKU. “It was incredibly fun for me.”

He is married to the former Christine Pawlowski, a high school volleyball and cross-country athlete from North Augusta, South Carolina. She worked as a radiation therapist while in Kentucky and joined Holmes this spring in Europe.

Christine Holmes, the daughter of John Pawlowski, while at FC Tempo Field south of downtown Prague on Saturday said her grandparents moved from Poland to upstate New York in the 1920s. She married Holmes in 2022 and had never been to Poland before this year.

“He thrives in this environment. He is very passionate about player development. Poland is a great fit for him,” she said of her husband.

AN OVERSEAS FOCUS

Holmes spent one year in the minors with the Yankees, posting an ERA of 0.59 in 14 games out of the bullpen in the Gulf Coast League in 2016 before he was released. Four pitchers from that squad made the majors, including Pennsylvania native Joe Harvey – who pitched for the Yankees and Rockies.

Holmes has tried to transfer that experience, plus his time in Bowling Green, to his Polish pitchers. Five of his players from his club team were part of the Polish national squad in Prague.

“It is an incredible, athletic group of guys. They are very young. It is a very raw group,” Holmes said of the Polish national team. “They are super athletic. Baseball is not deeply ingrained in Polish culture, but they have a ridiculous amount of potential.”

Another assistant coach with the Polish team is Paul Bragiel, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs with parents who have Polish roots. An entrepreneur who travels the world, Bragiel assisted the club last year at a Euro qualifying event in Kutno, Poland, as the host country lost by one run to Lithuania and failed to qualify for the 2025 European championships.

One of the pitchers with the Polish national team this year was Joey Pence, who is from New Jersey and pitched for Division I Lafayette in Pennsylvania through the 2024 season. He learned about the Polish team in mid-June, got the save on Friday in the Prague opener and nailed down the last two outs on Saturday.

“He is one of the nicest kids in the world,” Holmes said. “He is very coachable. He had some injuries in college, which happens. He came back and had a decent season to end up (his college career). He decided he had a little bit more to prove. He has thrown a couple of bullpens for me. He is a really good pitcher. I would not be shocked at all if he had a chance to play pro ball.”

Michael Sosna, who pitched as a freshman for the University of Chicago this spring, was the starter and winner for Poland on Saturday. He played high school baseball in the Chicago area.

“He did a great job,” McLaren said. “He gave us innings. That helped us a lot.”

“He came through in the clutch,” Bragiel said.

Holmes, after some time in the States, plans to return to Australia this winter to coach and hopefully Poland next year.

“I want to turn Rivnik into the best team in Poland,” Holmes said. “If we can keep growing, then the best team in Europe. From there, (hopefully) to assist John and Paul and make the Polish national staff one of the best and qualify for the World Baseball Classic.

The Polish coaches have plenty of work to do – in recent world rankings, Czechia was No. 15, Poland was No. 65 and the U.S. was ranked No. 5.

Despite the challenges, Holmes wants to help grow the game overseas.

“I want to take my career overseas because I’m passionate about coaching professionally in Europe and helping grow the game of baseball in new environments,” Holmes wrote on his overseas baseball profile. “After coaching at the Division 1 level, I’ve gained valuable experience working with high-level athletes, and I’m excited to bring that expertise to Europe’s talented baseball community. I have the knowledge and network to help players develop their skills and advance to the next level, and I’m eager to contribute to their growth both on and off the field. Additionally, the opportunity to live in Europe, experience different cultures and work with passionate players and teams while competing for championships is a dream. It’s a chance to challenge myself professionally, and I’m excited to help elevate the game while continuing to grow as a player and coach.”

THE TIM HOLMES FILE

Sport: Baseball

Bowling Green ties: Former WKU volunteer assistant coach from 2020-22

Overseas playing experience: Australia, Czechia, Austria, Canada

Pro ties: Pitched in the Yankees’ farm system in the Gulf Coast League in 2016

Birthplace: Jacksonville, Florida, on October 16, 1993

Did you know?: Holmes pitched in college at Chipola in Florida and at San Jacinto Junior College in Texas … He had an ERA of 0.59 in 14 games out of the bullpen in his only season in the Yankees’ chain … Holmes also played Indy ball from 2016-18. He was also a pitching instructor and college placement director at the Grind Baseball Center in Bowling Green. Holmes is married to the former Christine Pawlowski, a volleyball and cross-country athlete in high school in South Carolina. She is the daughter of former WKU baseball coach John Pawlowski, who now works with the IMG Academy in Florida … Group A in Prague featured Italy, Germany, host Czechia and Austria … The new Team Italy manager is former Major Leaguer Francisco Cervelli; he took over for Hall of Famer Mike Piazzi, who was let go earlier this year … Former Orioles and Mets Triple-A catcher Martin Cervenka, a native of Prague, hit four homers on Friday against Italy. He hit a solo, two-run, three-run and grand slam … Former Texas Rangers pitcher Corey Lee, a native of North Carolina, was one of the coaches for Lithuania in Prague … Former WKU basketball standout Justin Johnson of Bowling Green played this season for Verona, Italy, and he was the defensive player of the year, according to eurobasket.com.