Josh Hull grew up in Danbury in a house with a backyard large enough for football and baseball and a reservoir across the street for hockey.

“Sometimes I had to twist arms to get kids to show up,” said Hull, adding his role model was Spanky, recalling the Little Rascals episode in which Spanky organized a neighborhood football team.

“Now it’s almost 60 years later, and I’m still twisting arms to get players to show up,” adds Hull, 67, a volunteer coach with the 19U American Legion Baseball team, the Bethel Admirals, a summer wood bat league team that comprises Bethel and Newtown players. The Legion team competes with other baseball leagues, multi-sport athletes who decide to focus on one athletic activity (not baseball) year-round and, of course, summer vacation plans, and jobs.

Hull has coached at one age group/level or another since 1997, finding time to devote his energy, efforts, enthusiasm, and passion for America’s pastime toward guiding young baseball players on the diamonds around his work as a carpenter throughout the decades.

For his commitment and approach to coaching, Hull has received The Newtown Bee’s Harmon Award for Sportsman of the Year, named in honor of late Bee Sports Editor. Kim Harmon.

Hull, Newtown resident since 1974, has four children, all of whom played sports, as you might have guessed, and he coached all of them at some point or another; sons Tyler, Seth, and Jon all played baseball, and daughter Annie competed in swimming. He is a fan of University of Connecticut baseball, but — even with his children aged out of the teams he coaches long ago — a bigger fan of guiding high school players, many of whom aspire to bring their games to the next level.

Even when he isn’t coaching, Hull supports his team members. He can be found behind the backstop of Newtown High games — home and on the road — and, naturally, takes great interest in the matchups between Newtown and Bethel high schools.

While Spanky may, in fact, be a past role model who continues to impact Hull’s life, so too was a vastly different person: president John F. Kennedy. “I vividly remember sitting in front of the TV with my parents when JFK said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,’” he recalls.

“One of the best things about coaching is the satisfaction of serving the community, but the main reason I continue to coach is the competition, and another reason is the humor, such as when Michael Crimi told me he was a letter-grade B-plus in base stealing, then got caught stealing and yelled out, “Coach, make that a C-plus!” Hull recounted with a laugh.

Hull considers his Danbury High wrestling coach, Eugene “Gus” Edwards, who began the program when Hull was a freshman, to be his most inspirational coach, adding “Coach Edwards was ex-Army and an incredible motivator.”

Of course, Hull’s motivation tactics may not exactly be as regimented as those used by a military leader, but they’re effective.

“Josh always believed a loose and relaxed baseball team played better than one that was over-drilled and over-pressured to win. For example, before a New England Regional game with our 10-year-olds, he decided we should have an extreme fly ball practice instead of a traditional infield practice. He pulled out a tennis racquet and some tennis balls and proceeded to hit sky high pop-ups to the team. The kids loved it and proceeded to sweep the competition in four straight games, playing near-flawless defense. Many parents from opposing teams, some of whom saw the tennis ball practice, came up to Josh after the game, complimenting him on how well-coached and relaxed our players were,” said Ron Schmidt, who has enjoyed coaching a handful teams along with Hull throughout the years.

Hull first got into coaching when he served as Bob Glander’s assistant on a 12-year-old team in the spring of 1997. “My number one takeaway was that he truly cared about every single player. He had a bunch of sayings, with my favorite being ‘the ball cannot hurt you, it can only sting you.” Bob passed away a few months after that season,” Hull said.

In addition to coaching summer American Legion ball, which Hull points out is a unique baseball league because it represents our nation’s veterans, he coaches Newtown Babe Ruth 18U along with Rob Lombardo in the fall.

In years past, Hull spent many seasons coaching Newtown Babe Ruth all stars and recreation ball. “Coaching rec was a ton of fun,” he adds.

“I coach teams exactly how I ran house-framing crews. Instead of announcing concrete daily goals, I was more like ‘Let’s work our tails off and see what happens.’ So I guess it’s in my nature to be process-oriented, not results-oriented. That being said, I’m insanely dedicated to trying to win baseball games, although I conceal it from my players because if you make every game a life and death proposition, you’re going to be dead a lot,” Hull points out.

About 15 years ago, Hull changed his coaching goal, he said.

“It was tough to see a number of my former players become discouraged by the narrowing funnel of school baseball. So I decided that my goal was not just to inspire a love of playing the game, but also to try to inspire players to want to become future coaches and mentors,” he said.

Still, there is a lot that goes into leading the players in an effort to come out on top.

“I believe in planning, but my all-time favorite cliche is, ‘No plan survives first contact with the enemy,’” Hull said. “I’m consistently aggressive on the base paths. I run the contact play with runners at second and third, which sometimes perplexes our fans, and I push the running game, although it’s humbling. Two summers ago, on Father’s Day, I earned the hat-trick by getting three guys thrown out at second base in one inning. In my own defense, the first was a greenlight and the second was a blown hit and run, but I admit the third was a pitchout.”

Sometimes, umpires miss calls, and there are times a coach or player may falsely think an umpire has made a mistake. It’s all part of the game, in the eyes of Hull.

“I cut umpires slack because I’m trying to encourage my players to view adverse calls as just another part of the adversity of the game that has to be overcome. On the other hand, baseball is frustrating, and you can’t expect the players to be robots,” Hull said.

He has respect for umpires and they, according to John “Hawk” Christos, who has umped Hull’s teams since he started coaching two decades ago, have plenty of respect for him.

“He’s just a class act to deal with. You work hard, you won’t hear one word from him,” said Christos, adding that Hull’s teams, from the coaching staff to the players, are always professional in their approach.

“Josh always insisted that his teams will play harder than their opponent, but not at the expense of sportsmanship and respect for the opposing teams’ players and fans. No ‘bulletin board material’ was an inviolable rule. His successful efforts to continue the camaraderie found on his current Senior American Legion team is a testament to his coaching philosophy — here are high school athletes who fiercely compete against each other on their respective Newtown and Bethel high school teams getting together for a summer of highly competitive baseball on one cohesive team and loving the experience while consistently finishing at our near the top of their division,” Schmidt said.

“His baseball teams became his extended family, and he loved interacting with the guys on all levels, not just baseball. Some of our best baseball times together involved things like watching our 9- and 10-year-old teams play pickle after a tough tournament game, often with the team we just beat, which was usually the case. We marveled at their unspoiled love of the game. This carried through all the way to our older American Legion teams, although the pickle games eventually gave way to entertaining conversations on cars, college, and dating,” Schmidt added.

Hull can rattle off stories about former players, coaches he’s had the pleasure of working alongside, and teams that stand out — so many that it could pass the time during a long rain delay.

“Going back quite a few years, I combined with Paul Meisel and Jack Vichiola. Paul’s dry humor was hilarious, and Jack’s positive attitude was contagious. He played high school hockey when they didn’t use facemasks, so I guess he was optimistic at a young age,” Hull said. “Among the most memorable summer teams I’ve coached were the 2008 Newtown Babe Ruth 13s, who were the first teenaged Newtown Babe Ruth all stars to ever win the Districts; the State Champion 2010 Newtown Babe Ruth 13s; and 2016 Legion Admirals 19u. All three epitomized character, chemistry, and teamwork,” Hull said.

The longtime coach looks forward to continuing to share his knowledge to hitters, pitchers, and fielders alike, but also wonders what it would be like to lead in a different sport.

“In my next life, I’d like to also coach football because the coach has more of an effect on the game. There’s a lot of randomness in baseball games. But there’s always more to learn, and I like the challenge of trying to figure out how to make my players and teams better,” Hull said.