Mostly father, occasionally coach: That's how Billings Central Catholic baseball players address their assistant coach, Father John Pankratz.
"In faith and in life and in school, sports is a great opportunity to teach," Pankratz said.
Watch the full video below:
St. Patrick's priest helping coach Central High School baseball team
It's the second year of high school baseball in Montana, which has brought about some first-year teams, including Billings Central.
And on the field, the players have a chance for more guidance from Pankratz, who also preaches at St. Patrick Co-Cathedral.
The Central Rams have earned a spot for a post-season play-in game on Saturday.
Pankratz keeps track of the statistics, and head coach Mike Martinson is a baseball man, having made it to the AAA level in the California Angels organization.
Both also teach religion at Central.
"Maybe don't have to do with baseball in particular, but some of those verses of St. Paul, where he's using sports as an analogy for faith," Pankratz said. "So he talks about I fought the good fight. I ran the race. I've kept the faith."
Pankratz wears his priestly collar under his baseball jersey, and he enjoys his time in the dugout.
What he brings to the team are lessons for both baseball and life.
"In the school mass, he normally focuses on, like, the world's what we can do is better people," said player Brennan Harlan. "And then in baseball meetings, he gives us like what we can do in baseball to be better people and to give our trust in the Lord in what we do."
The players say the perseverance needed for baseball adds to the lessons from Father John.
"Baseball is a game of failure and you can put that into your personal life too," said Howie Martin. "You can fail however many times, but still come up and be successful in the end."
"And we're in our spiritual lives, our relationship with God, often it's characterized by setbacks and failure and sin," Pankratz said. "But the Lord works with us and what he asks of us is to just keep going, keep getting up to bat."
Players say Father John is competitive but also keeps the game in perspective.
"Our team has pretty good sportsmanship," said Paxton Prill. "We don't get into it with other teams and that's on his part. He keeps us pretty in check most of the time."
"Both his preaching and his coaching throughout everything he does, he really tries to keep us working together and staying close as well as making sure that we are on our best behavior," said Ollin Kulaga.
Father John says helping out is just part of his ministry, adding he has been an assistant coach for boys and girls soccer, the boys basketball team, and now baseball.
"We want to win baseball games and we want to compete on the field," Pankratz said. "But in the end, we want to help these boys become young men and to help them be successful in what they do in their faith in their career and in their academics."