To the chagrin of little league coaches everywhere, the Coffey brothers — Adisyn and Arian — were inseparable.
“They’d do their draft, and Adisyn and I always came as a package deal,” Arian said. “A lot of other coaches got upset because we were so good. They wanted to split us up, but we always played on the same team.”
Despite being born 15 months apart, the brothers were always teammates. They played on the same teams in baseball, basketball and football, Adisyn playing up a level to be with Arian. All the while, he toughed it out against older, bigger competition.
“I became super competitive at a young age because I was always trying to keep up,” Adisyn said. “I never had the size they did, so I had to find other ways to try and win. It gave me this obsession to be better than everyone and to keep up with the talent of my older brother.”
Aidyn Coffey, born four years after Adisyn and nearly six after Arian, never had the opportunity to share the field with his brothers.
Instead, he watched from afar, waiting to start his baseball career. In doing so, he picked up the same determination as Adisyn.
“Aidyn was the same, always having to stand by and watch his older brothers play,” Adisyn said. “(It) gave him the drive and obsession to be better than we were.”
In the years since, the brothers have embarked on their respective journeys through baseball, each experiencing ups and downs along the way as they tried to take the field together again.
To make it through the tough times, Arian said that he taught his brothers a lesson:
“No matter what it is — baseball, life — it comes with ups and downs,” Arian said. “Just being able to accept life on life’s terms and knowing God … We’re very faithful in God, knowing that He has a plan for us and a journey.”
“The hardest thing I’ve ever done”
One of the first things that Adisyn did after being drafted in 2020 was head to the operating table. The third-round pick was getting Tommy John surgery before he had a chance to begin his career.
His recovery gave him a chance to focus on something he’d seldom done in all his years playing baseball: pitch.
Growing up, Adisyn almost always played shortstop. He had a cannon for an arm, which made a few teams — including the Sox — interested in seeing what he could do on the mound.
“Being a full-time pitcher was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Adisyn said. “I worked incredibly hard my entire life to be a hitter and infielder, and with that, I trained to have a strong arm so I could make those tough plays.”
“Somewhere along the way, people just started noticing the arm, and I don’t blame them,” he said. “I threw 100 mph from shortstop in high school.”
Adisyn spent the rest of 2020 and all of 2021 working his way back to the field and learning the ins and outs of pitching.
His hard work paid off, and he made the Cannon Ballers’ bullpen in 2022. In his first appearance for the organization, Adisyn retired future major leaguer Joey Loperfido as he worked a scoreless ninth in a 16-8 win.
“I just wanted to play baseball”
As Adisyn’s career in the minor leagues was just beginning, Arian’s was coming to an end.
The oldest Coffey brother began his collegiate career at the University of Indianapolis in the fall of 2016. He, too, changed positions, going from a two-way player in high school to a pitcher only in college.
After redshirting his first year and making a few appearances in his freshman season, Arian began to look for a change of scenery.
“Being the competitor that I am, I just wanted to play baseball,” Arian said.
Arian found an opportunity at Miami Hamilton, a satellite campus of Miami University. He pitched a full sophomore season for the Harriers and finally regained the confidence he’d been missing the past few seasons.
Then 2020 happened.
COVID wiped out both the 2020 and 2021 seasons at Miami Hamilton, and just like that, Arian’s college career was done. Across his five years in school, he only pitched one full season. But he wasn’t ready to leave baseball behind.
“I wanted to play at the next level, but not having many stats, no one really knew who I was,” Arian said.
He spent the lost seasons working on his velocity, which he admitted was his biggest weakness. After working through a velocity program, Arian got up to 93 mph and began to look for an independent league team.
He tried out for the Pioneer League and Frontier League, all the while competing against players with far more impressive resumes.
While Arian did not find a team that season, he still wasn’t ready to give up on his dream. He further increased his velocity and tried out again the next year.
And again, he went undrafted and unsigned in either league.
He still found a place to play. Arian signed with the Black Sox, a team that scrimmages against independent teams. Their players sometimes go on to indy leagues themselves, offering Arian a real shot at professional baseball.
A few months into his tenure with the Black Sox, he sustained a slight UCL tear. Just as he’d finally found an opportunity, his career came to an abrupt end.
“I think that was just kind of a sign that it might be kind of time to look at some other opportunities,” Arian said. “(It) was probably the hardest decision I had to make, to hang it up.”
Arian said that he did it all — the years of velocity programs, tryouts and scrimmage games — for a chance to one day share the field with both Adisyn and Aidyn.
“That was my long-term dream,” Arian said. “That’s why I tried so hard to play.”
Now that Arian’s baseball career is over, he finds inspiration in his younger brothers, who always looked up to him.
“It’s funny. Being the oldest, I actually look up to them,” Arian said. “They’re still playing. I just look up to them in the way they’re able to teach me how to be tough and resilient.”
“I always wanted to be like him”
Aidyn, too, has no shortage of admiration for Adisyn:
“He’s a great person. … He’s motivated. … He’s very determined to go for what he wants.”
“He goes out there, does his job. … His attention to detail is very good. … He’s got a ton of conviction.”
“He’s always hungry. … He always wants more.”
Aidyn is on the same track as Arian and Adisyn were before him. The infielder is in the midst of his own college baseball career at Stony Brook University.
He said he wants to be just like Adisyn.
“My whole life, I’ve looked up to him,” Aidyn said. “Ever since I was young, I always wanted to be like him, just be like my bigger brother. He’s always motivated me. He’s always pushing me.”
The youngest Coffey brother, unsurprisingly, is a lot like the other two. He found his competitive nature because of them, and even had the same friends growing up, despite being years younger.
Aidyn is different in one major way: he’s playing the college infield career that Arian and Adisyn never had, and he’s doing it using some advice he picked up from Adisyn.
“‘Just go out there and act like you’re the best player on the field,’” Aidyn said. “If you don’t think that, you’re already defeated.”
It’s the same attitude that brought Adisyn to Triple-A, and it’s now guiding his younger brother through college.
Even after making it as far as he has, there’s still one thing that Aidyn never got to do.
Being so much younger than Arian and Adisyn, Aidyn never got the chance to play a game alongside either of his brothers.
“Still could,” Aidyn said.
Sox On 35th would like to sincerely thank Adisyn, Arian and Aidyn Coffey for their time, and Salvatore D’Onofrio at Stony Brook for his help arranging the interview with Aidyn.
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Featured Photo: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
This story moved me in way I didn’t think possible