Greg Creek’s baseball career has taken him places. It took him to Division I stardom at the University of Maine. It took him into the world of professional baseball. It took him all the way to the Double-A level, only two stops away from the major leagues.

Now, the former Maranacook standout is helping to start kids on what they hope will be a similar path.

Creek stepped away from the field as a player in 2010, but he’s embraced a second career as a baseball coach and instructor, working with young players at Total Baseball Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and coaching one of four travel teams he’s started with the organization.

“It’s been a great 10 years of doing it, and I’m never going to stop doing it, I don’t think,” said Creek, 38, who now lives near the academy in Palmetto. “I’ve built very strong bonds and relationships with some of those kids, and that was really the biggest draw for me when I started doing this. I was able to really deeply reach a lot of kids and help them.”

Creek helped start Total Baseball Academy with Ted Rose, a former minor league pitcher.

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“Where we live down here in Florida, there’s a guy like he and I on every street corner. There are pro baseball players everywhere. … They’re here and they’re gone every year,” Rose said. “I said (to Greg) ‘If you don’t live and die with these kids, you’re not going to be very good at it.’ And Greg’s one of those guys, he lives and dies with every single one of his kids.”

Creek has an impressive resume. He was the Winkin Award winner as the state’s best baseball player in 2001 while leading Maranacook to a second straight Class B final, and he then went to play at Maine, where he batted .365 with six home runs his junior year and .354 with nine homers in his senior season.

Maranacook’s Greg Creek hauls in a fly ball during a 2001 game in Readfield. Kennebec Journal file photo by Andy Molloy

He was picked up as an undrafted free agent by the Braves and began to climb the rungs of Atlanta’s minor league system, playing for the Double-A Mississippi Braves from 2007-09 and batting .268 in 351 at-bats in 2008. Even as he was proving he belonged at each stop, he saw future All-Stars like Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman come up through the system, reminding him just how far he had to go.

“I probably realized after my third year in pro ball that the chances of me getting in the big leagues was very slim,” he said. “I just learned to love the life, and visit these cities in the south and spend time with these amazing athletes. When I got the opportunity, I busted my butt on the field. I turned into an organizational guy, which now, there is great value in what I learned.”

Creek took the times he wasn’t playing as an opportunity to better learn the game from the bench, and to gain an appreciation for how his coaches taught the players. He started spending time at clinics during the winters in Florida, and met Rose during one of his final years as a player. The two had had the same manager, Phil Wellman, and they struck up a conversation and exchanged contact information.

When Rose, who was starting an academy of his own called The Strike Zone, heard of Creek’s release in 2010, he gave him a call.

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“It was a pretty easy transition. It was pretty natural,” Creek said. “Just like 99 percent of players in any sport, you take that jersey away from them, there’s a certain amount of, I guess, anxiety or depression that you battle through, because your identity is completely lost.

“(But) I had set myself up pretty well. Having (coaching) in my back pocket, it was always kind of the plan.”

Creek started at The Strike Zone, then went with Rose to start Total Baseball Academy. He’s done private lessons all those years, working primarily with players from any age between 8 and 18.

Rose said he’s seen Creek build upon his knack for coaching as he’s become more experienced.

“He always had a pretty good grasp of what he’s wanted to see technically in a swing or a throw,” he said. “He’s better at getting it into the kids faster now. … He’s gotten better at finding the light bulb faster, and better and better at being able to read kids.”

Recently, Creek took a step forward with his coaching, starting the Mayhem travel baseball team last spring. It grew in the fall to four teams — two 11U teams, a 12U team and a 13U team — and Creek coaches the 13Us, allowing him to be part of the baseball game environment again.

University of Maine starting pitcher Greg Creek delivers a pitch against Brown during a 2004 game at Goodall Field in Sanford. Portland Press Herald file photo

“It gave me the ability to coach some young coaches who I had trained in the past to be better coaches, and having that coaching tree underneath you allows you to reach a lot more kids,” he said. “It’s been awesome to be back on the field. It’s been great to get that team atmosphere back. The older you get, you realize that’s why you play.”

The reason Creek coaches, though, is the players.

“It’s the relationships,” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see when these guys are getting married, having kids, if they still look back at me and say ‘That guy took care of me,’ and ‘That guy taught me a lot about life.’

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