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Tragedy keeps Boise Hawks manager away

Casey Kopitzke will miss time after his young daughter died Saturday.

BY CHRIS LANGRILL - clangrill@idahostatesman.com © 2009 Idaho Statesman

Published: 06/18/09


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In a perfect world Casey Kopitzke would have walked off the plane that arrived with the Boise Hawks players Wednesday afternoon at the Boise Airport.

That would have been fans' first chance to meet the first-time manager of the Hawks.

Instead, Kopitzke, 31, was in De Pere, Wisc., dealing with a family tragedy. His daughter Catherine died Saturday less than eight weeks after her birth.

Kopitzke's wife, Erin, spent a good portion of her pregnancy on bed rest, and their daughter was in intensive care for some of her short life, according to Hawks president and general manager Todd Rahr.

"The Cubs organization is a great organization to work for, and they have allowed Casey to have the whole summer off, if he needs it," Rahr said. "He can come back whenever he feels like it, whether that's a week from now or three months from now."

In the meantime, Franklin Font will serve as the interim manager of the Hawks. Font said he had no expectations of when he would be handing the reins over to Kopitzke.

"I'm going to follow his plan," said Font, who was Boise's hitting coach in 2007. "I'm going to wait for him É and when he comes, it's his team."

Rahr said in the meantime the team was in capable hands.

"Franklin has been here before, and he was a manger in Mesa (Ariz.) last year," Rahr said. "So it's not like we're getting a guy who doesn't have managerial experience."

Font said Kopitzke mapped out the first couple of days on the job for him.

"All the itinerary we have for the first two days - the workouts and everything - he made it," Font said. "He was ready to go."

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