Pati Derrick watches as her husband, Richand Post 6 coach Ray Derrick, has a conversation with an umpire between innings. There are people who love baseball and people who REALLY LOVE baseball. Patricia Derrick is the latter.

Married for 25 years to Richland Post 6 baseball coach Ray Derrick, who just completed his fifth year at the helm at Hammond School, Pati finds her love of all things baseball comes in handy, since he lives, eats, and breathes the lifestyle.

"I love the game, I really do," she said. "I start shaking until baseball season starts."

The high school sweethearts have always had the sport as a common bond, she a cheerleader at Hammond, and he a baseball star at A.C. Flora, and later a two- sport star (football and baseball) at USC until injuries ended his playing days.

With Pati cheering from the stands, Derrick coached his son, Spencer, from little league to high school. She remembers, with humor, those days when her husband was working as an assistant coach at A.C. Flora and her son was on the team.

Pati Derrick cheers on her team from the stands at a June 3 game against Lexington. "Yes, he was much harder on Spencer than the other players," she recalled with her trademark infectious laugh. "They had to balance that out, with the head coach handling all communications with Spencer. That seemed to work better."

Derrick won a state championship with Richland Post 6 in 2007, and has had a good run at Hammond. The Skyhawks reached the semi- finals of the state playoffs this year before falling 8- 7 in a heartbreaker to eventual state champion Pinewood Prep. Derrick, an assistant coach at A.C. Flora before being tapped to head the Skyhawks' program, was named this year's SCISA coach of the year.

Now back coaching the Richland Post 6 Pathfinders' team for the summer, with former and current players from Richland Northeast, Lower Richland, Hammond, Dreher, Flora, and Cardinal Newman, Derrick is again busy on the field and his wife, whose "other" life includes teaching visual arts at Satchel Ford Elementary, is busy in the stands.

"I'm the head cheerleader, sometimes the only cheerleader," she said, laughing. "Once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader. I can't really seem to get it out of my system."

During a 13- 2 win over Lexington on June 3 at the Pathfinder's home field, the coach's wife was in good form, celebrating the good plays and mourning those that didn't quite work. She kept up a constant mantra of cheers, mostly involving the players' numbers, chanted in a manner that makes one think that the word "two" has three syllables in it.

"I'm not too critical, I just love the game," she said. "My job is to show up and cheer."

Pati said she doesn't offer too much advice to Ray post- game, although at times she does vent a bit with no expectations.

"Sometimes I offer my opinion, whether or not it matters," she said, laughing. "Ray doesn't get too worked up about things, except for things that affect the kids."

Not that he's a shrinking daisy, Pati warned, with humor tinged with loyalty.

"He's been thrown out of a few games, but always arguing a good point," she said. "Of course."

"She is a good sounding board for me if I come home from a game a little aggravated," Ray Derrick said of his wife. "She might ask me why I did a certain thing or why a player did something, but that's because, like me, she's always learning about the game."

In this journey from little league to college ball, Pati said she has realized the benefits surrounding the baseball lifestyle far outweigh the heartaches.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know people from all walks of life," Derrick said. "That bond is unbreakable. We will see players from little league in high school, and all the way to college. No matter how many years go by, you see someone and it's like you're back to being best friends again."

She said she also realized the toll it could take on their marriage, with her husband coaching two seasons of baseball as well as working as an assistant coach for Hammond's three- time state championship football team.

"I knew from the beginning that it would take an enormous amount of time," she continued. "But I know that the kids benefit from it, and that's a great thing."

But it's not just the three- hour practices, the travel, and the games that eat up time. Derrick treats his Hammond and Richland Post 6 team fields with tender loving care, taking hours to keep them in pristine playing condition.

"They are like his babies," she said. "He takes a lot of pride in making sure that they are the best fields, and that takes time."

Does she help him with his landscaping duties?

"No!" she cried with a whoop of laughter. "I don't do yard work."