Joel Krato has had much success as the Community R-6 baseball head coach.

That success earned him a new job as the head coach for Class 6 Troy Buchanan, as he announced the move on Facebook on June 2. Krato will be leaving the Class 1 school after leading the Trojans to their sixth straight season of advancing to at least the district semifinals and fourth straight winning season and is also the coach that took them to their second state Final Four in 2023.

Krato said it is tough to leave after all of his success, and by success, he means the meaningful relationships he built with his players. There were plenty of connections he will miss at Community R-6 when he put on his coach hat, but he now needs to wear his “dad hat and husband hat.”

“If me and my wife were able to move closer, I don’t think I ever would have left this place,” Krato said. “It’s been an awesome seven years.”

Ever since being hired in 2018, Krato has lived with his wife, Amanda, in Wright City, and in recent years, with his 2-year-old. Wright City is about an hour away from Community R-6 and about 30 minutes away from Troy Buchanan, but Krato said it is possible they’ll move even closer as his wife works at his alma mater, Winfield, about 10 minutes away.

Krato said has wanted to be around his 2-year-old more and his wife has “essentially been a single parent for two-thirds of the year” because of his coaching responsibilities during the fall, spring and summer seasons. Before fully transitioning to his new job, Krato is seeing his duties through to the end by coaching Community this summer.  

 “There is no downside to this job other than I have to drive an hour and I just don’t see my wife and kid very much,” Krato said. “My coworkers are great, my administrator is great, the families I coach are great and the kids I coach are great.”

Before graduating from Lindenwood University, Krato held coaching jobs but was searching for his first head coaching and teaching position once he graduated. He said six schools passed on him before Community gave him that one yes. The worst season the Trojans had under Krato was his first season in 2019 at a 7-9 record, which followed a 1-14 season.

“I told Mr. (Bob) Curtis, ‘Just like Tom Brady told Robert Kraft, I’m going to be the best decision this school district’s ever made,’” Krato said with a grin. “I’m not. Stacy French is way better than me, but I like to think that I was a good decision for this school district.”

Curtis is the athletic director at Community and the person who hired Krato seven years ago. He said Krato proved to be a coach who secured results but also developed proud players, including kids who discovered a love for baseball after meeting him.

“I was lucky enough to hire coach Krato,” Curtis said. “When we were looking at him for the job, I was really impressed that he is 100 percent a baseball nut. He thinks about probably 24 hours a day and seven days a week. He really built good relationships with our kids. The kids wanted to play for him.”

Krato played for and held a job at Winfield and also coached at Holt in Wentzville, but despite being so far away from Community, he did have some history with the school. In his playing days, Winfield and Community were in the Eastern Missouri Conference. 

“I remember thinking, as I was playing here, this is in the middle of nowhere,” Krato said. “I remember corn stalks in the dugout. Basically just find a cornfield and keep walking until you find lights and there will be a school next to it. That’s essentially how I gave directions to this place.”

He said not much has changed about the “farm life” atmosphere since he moved into his classroom seven years ago. Krato remembers a rooster was calling outside his window, surprising him and his mother while she helped him move. It did grow to feel like his home. 

His fondness for the Community kids he has coached is even stronger after he adjusted to the slower pace of the Class 1 game. Krato had been used to a faster brand of baseball and a bigger roster with Class 5 Holt, who was ranked third in the state the season he coached there and had five Division I players on the roster and one who was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles. 

Community has always had kids who liked baseball and had experience prior to high school but not much compared to the many travel ballgames Holt and other players had. It was a different situation, but Krato describes himself as a coach who can adjust to any situation. Krato said the small ball identity the Trojans have had under his leadership wasn’t because it was ingrained in him before he met them, rather he adopted it based on his players and competition.

“That was not how I had been coaching prior to here,” Krato said. “I had never called a squeeze (bunt) until my third or fourth year here. Every year, we would try to add more different things.”

Krato noticed Community had been leaving too many runners on third base with less than two outs so he incorporated squeeze bunting, which has stayed with the Trojans since and was a go-to play for the Final Four team. He said the Trojans had certain ways to read opponents so even slower runners could steal third base. His final Community team this past season finished 5-13 during the fall season but were 13-8 in the spring after averaging four hit by pitches a game to take advantage of opposing pitcher’s being out of the strike zone.

“There are always ways to manipulate the game,” Krato said. “They do it at the pro levels in football and in basketball. It’s studying it and figuring out what you have to do.”

Krato has an encyclopedic knowledge from all of the games in which he has been involved and can instantly recall moments and game situations after a mere glance at the various photos around his classroom. He remembers countless games, ranging from his first district game as a head coach in 2019 when the Trojans trailed Glasgow 3-0 in the fourth inning before winning 4-3 to the five postseason victories that earned Community a trip to the 2023 Final Four. 

One year after losing 4-0 to Higbee in the district semifinals, in a game Derek Rockett recorded all 21 outs himself including 19 strikeouts, the Trojans defeated Higbee 2-0 after Gavin Allen outdueled Rockett 2-0 in a game that started after 9 p.m. at Battle High School in Columbia. The Trojans beat Cairo 3-0 the next day for their first district title since 2001 behind seven shutout innings by Mason Carroll. 

Those moments are unforgettable to Krato, but he said that’s only because he was with the right people. To him, lofty team accomplishments are meaningless if they aren’t enjoyed with great players and assistants, like the ones he had at Community. Just because he is leaving for another place, Krato said he doesn’t want these relationships to go away.

“When I look back to how I would define success, I would say it’s how many of these kids stay in contact with me over the next 20 years,” Krato said.

It will be the “little funny quirky things” that happened at practice or during games that Krato will miss the most. In his first year, he remembers freshman Case Stafford putting a baseball in front of his face to ask how to throw a curveball while he was trying to call pitches in the seventh inning of a close game against Sturgeon and how he lost his mind in response to that “son of a gun.” 

During another season, Krato said the team was singing the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” theme on the way to Sturgeon. While Krato said he doesn’t mind players being loose before a game, he said he cautioned them that they need to be locked in from the start and the Trojans led off the game with a strikeout. Krato went over to the dugout and threw a bucket of baseballs, providing another example of how each side knew how to push each other’s buttons, and then the Final Four team named its group chat after Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Even though Krato was angry at those moments, he can’t help but smile at the wave of nostalgia and hopes his kids have “the same feelings, emotions and relationships” that he has with his coach. For example, about two years ago, Krato said he stopped going to church but went back the Sunday after his former basketball coach texted him. He said family and coworkers had tried to convince him to return but listened to another voice because “that’s my coach.”

As with any Ledger interview, Krato closed it by saying, “Go Trojans.” Before the Trojans lost 5-4 in walk-off fashion during the district semifinals this year against New Haven, Krato noticed 10 former players were in the crowd “screaming and cheering like they were still on the team.” Seeing moments like that and maintaining relationships with kids he inspires to take the next steps in life is “cooler than the Final Four or a district championship.”

“Just because I got a plaque when I had some good ballplayers and when some things went our way doesn’t make me any more or less of a coach or change who I am as a coach,” Krato said.