Billy Kearins: Player/Coach for Old Town Coast — a Key West Based Sandlot Ball Club

A North Shore Massachusetts native, Billy Kearins made his way south — all the way to the end of the road in Key West — after graduating from Boston College in 2001. The plan back then — or lack thereof — was to enjoy some time in the sun, figure out a career path, and find a new place to settle.
Twenty years later, and he’s still pondering those same questions from his studio in the Old Town neighborhood of the Southernmost City.
Growing up, Kearins played baseball and hockey through high school, and upon landing in Key West, took up sailing and captained boats professionally for a stint.
But as the years moved on, his creative instincts took over, and for the past ten years he’s made his way as an artist, designer, and live music producer, founding the arts-based company Coast Projects and its annual hurricane-season-ending celebration aptly called The Coast Is Clear Music & Arts Festival — a gathering of creative clout which has brought some pretty big names to small stages around the island during the first weekend of each December.
The new career path and two growing kids kept him busy for a spell, but baseball came knocking again when his son decided that he wanted to play ball like his old man. And for the past five years, he’s woven his way into the local baseball scene on a number of fronts — from coaching Little League, to playing co-ed softball, and, more recently, in starting up the island’s first (and only) sandlot ball club.
The latter came just following the 2021 Coast Is Clear Festival when a couple of Texas Playboys who were in attendance suggested fielding a team so that they could “barnstorm” the festival the following year.
And that’s just what happened, when 12 months later — in December 2022 — a barebones Playboys squad landed on the island to enjoy a weekend of music and a seven-inning nailbiter against the newly minted Old Town Coast sandlot ball club where Kearins serves as the team’s shortstop and spiritual leader.
The hometown team won the inaugural game in the final frame, but the boys from Austin vowed to return. Other clubs across the country have caught wind of the Southernmost sandlot squad and promised to make the pilgrimage to the end of the road, too.
Plans to expand the festival program to include a sandlot tournament are already in the works, so stay tuned, folks…