Behind the scenes
Robert Austin - President / Co-Founder
Rob is a Kansas City native of 40 years. Grew up playing multiple sports through high school. What began as a simple volunteer to coach recreational Basketball for 1st/2nd grade boys in 2014, quickly turned into coaching multiple sports for multiple ages over the last few years. Being a local business owner and community activist, and seeing the current climate in youth sports in KC, Rob approached Coach Minnis with an idea. After coaching together for one season, and discovering they both had a similar vision, SOAR Baseball Academy was born. Rob serves as Vice President of Operations and anything else needed from anyone within the Club/SOAR Family.
Albert Minnis - President Baseball Operations / Co-Founder
Coach Minnis is from the Kansas City Area and played baseball at Park Hill High School and Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas. He was drafted in 2010 by the Atlanta Braves in the 33rd round but decided to play 3 years under Hall of Fame Coaches Gene Stephenson and Brent Kemnitz at Wichita State University. In 2013 he was drafted by the Houston Astros and played 4 1/2 seasons in the minor leagues, then retiring after reaching AAA. He now lives in Kansas City with his wife Jennifer and his newborn daughter Nola. His philosophy is that everyone is different. No one player is the same and every player should be coached differently. Albert uses what he learned at all levels of youth, high school, college, and professional baseball to teach young baseball players how to be the best they can be, regardless of their god given abilities. "To Whom Much is given, Much is Required" - GO EAGLES
Mike Dial - Director of Coaching & Player Development
Mike brings over 20 years of coaching, teaching, and leadership experience to SOAR. He played multiple sports in high school at Ray-Pec in the early 1990's. As a teacher and coach, Mike coached high school baseball and football for over a decade, earning numerous conference, district titles, and one state championship as a coach of multiple sports at Lawson High School. After coaching high school athletes, he transitioned to the administrative side of education and has served as both a middle school athletic director and a high school administrator for the last 7 years. At that time, he also switched from coaching high school athletes to coaching youth athletes and has been coaching youth baseball, football, and basketball since 2012.