When New Trier High School baseball returns next spring there will be a new head coach, but one with a familiar last name.
New Trier officials have named Michael “Dusty” Napoleon as the new coach for the Trevians. He will succeed his father, Mike (affectionately known as “Naps”), who retired this spring as the state’s all-time winningest coach.
“It is a dream job,” Dusty Napoleon said. “I’m from the area and I went to New Trier. This is something that I have been thinking about for a long time. It is something I really wanted to do.”
A 2004 New Trier graduate, Napoleon attended the University of Iowa where he was team’s MVP in 2007. That year, he was drafted by MLB’s Oakland A’s, and over the next four years, he progressed through the system making it as high as Triple A in 2010.
After his playing days concluded, Napoleon returned to Iowa City to start a coaching career where later stops included Western Illinois, Concordia University Chicago, Northwestern University and last year he was the assistant coach under his father at New Trier.
He acknowledges his new job realizes a longtime ambition.
“Taking over for my dad was something I definitely thought about growing up,” he said.
Still he had to be selected by the administration. New Trier Athletic Director Augie Fontanetta stated the younger Napoleon was hired based on merit, not family lineage.
“We feel Dusty is the best person to sustain and exceed what has been done in the past,” Fontanetta said, adding there were six candidates and three finalists. “What put him over the top was his student-centered approach and the relationships that he built with our kids and families.”
Napoleon believes the totality of his experience will benefit today’s players to take the next step in their individual careers. He ticks off with experience in tasks such as how to send emails to college coaches and self-promote on social media.
He also promises to use modern technology to help the players with the advanced metrics of the game.
“I think using technology and keeping up to date where baseball is at is important,” he said.
Finally, he also wants to help the modern Trevians with the mental aspect of the game where his perspective was developed through many long bus rides when he was in the minor leagues.
“Baseball is a tough sport,” he said. “Understanding you are going to fail more times than you are going to succeed at this sport, that was part of my minor league journey.”
Next spring he will take over a team that enjoyed a 30-game winning streak in 2024, before losing to Evanston Township in the sectionals.
“We are going to be good, we are going to be talented,” Napoleon promised. “We have a good core coming back.”
To help him get started, Napoleon is retaining assistant coaches Scott Klipowicz and Pete Drevline as he saw how well the players connected with them last year.
“I really wanted those guys on staff because I know how much value they can bring not only to myself but also to the kids,” he said.
While he is retaining the assistant coaches, Napoleon said his father, who retired after winning exactly 1,000 games, will not be around.
“We both talked and it is important to have some separation as he steps away and I take this thing over,” Dusty said.
Napoleon may have been around the game his whole life, but he will still have to adjust to life as a head coach.
Glenbrook North Baseball Coach Justin Weiner walked down the rookie head coach path in 2024 and spoke of the pressures of the administrative responsibilities connected with the job such as budgeting and scheduling.
“It is very much a full time gig,” Weiner said. “If the administrative pieces weren’t there I think you have more coaches sticking around longer than they do.”
Weiner also mentions Napoleon will have to deal with recent changes in college transfer policy and its corresponding effect on high school players and the modern omnipresent effect of social media.
While Weiner points to what lies ahead, he also speaks highly of the person he will be facing off against next year on the baseball diamond mentioning they have known each other for a long time and the two families are friendly.
“We’re friends until the first pitch comes and then we are competitors,” Weiner said. “That is something I have always admired about him is that he is such a good human being but he is also such a fierce competitor. That is what you want as a coach and that is what parents would want for the person who coaches their kid.”
Away from the baseball field, Napoleon is planning to get a teaching degree so he can eventually teach at the high school. In the short term, he plans to work security in the Winnetka campus while he and his wife raise their four children.
Spring may be some time away, but Napoleon is aware of the task ahead as he guides a storied program capped off with two state championships in 2000 and 2009 along with multiple conference titles.
“I know how to handle it but I know there is pressure to win at New Trier when you are the head coach especially in baseball with such a good reputation,” he said. “But I am ready for that challenge.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
