Albert Lea man juggles coaching, working and owning businesses

The baseball cap Jay Enderson dons in the dugout is one of multiple figurative hats he wears.

Along with coaching two baseball teams and working as a regional representative for Expedition Log Homes, Enderson owns a winery and two furniture companies.

“It’s just about balancing the schedule,” said Enderson. “Baseball starts for me on the first of January in the gym, and it ends in August. That’s a long run, and everything else wraps around that.”

Enderson’s coaching journey began 16 years ago in an Albert Lea Parks and Recreation baseball league, he said. He coached his sons through Albert Lea’s youth traveling baseball teams, the ninth-grade team, the JV team and has been a varsity assistant under head coach Joe Sczublewski for the last seven years.

“Jay is extremely dedicated and continually upbeat,” said Sczublewski. “He loves coaching baseball and is always willing to help a player deal with issues that come up — baseball-related or not. He sincerely cares about the players.”

In addition to assisting Sczublewski in the spring, Enderson brings continuity to the baseball program as head coach of Albert Lea’s Legion Post 56 baseball team, a squad that plays in the summer. Enderson said Legion baseball offers an excellent opportunity to develop players.

“It’s imperative that someone transfers over to keep the cohesiveness between the spring and summer,” he said. “Playing summer ball builds high-school ball. That’s the goal.”

Player development is Enderson’s favorite aspect of coaching.

“Sometimes there’s a little guy who might be undersized and might not have been given the chance to play as a sixth-grader, but then he might grow up to be a great player when he gets in high school,” he said. “That’s why its so important to keep these kids in the game. Don’t let them quit, and don’t cut them.”

This spring, the Tigers return their entire roster except one player. The lone graduated senior from last season was Johnathan Fleek — the Tribune’s All-Area baseball Player of the Year — but Enderson has high hopes.

“I’m really confident the high school team can do well,” he said. “This group has probably been one of the most focused groups of all of the high school teams I’ve been involved with.”

Enderson, an Albert Lea native, graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1981. As a three-sport athlete in high school, he played football, hockey and baseball through 10th grade before he traded his bat for a tennis racket as a junior and senior.

After earning an associate degree in mechanical drafting, Enderson began working in the log-home business, which has been a career he’s enjoyed for more than 25 years. His house in Chapeau Heights is a model home he built in 1998, he said.

A year before his home was built, Enderson started Moosehead Rustic & Log Furniture Co. The business makes custom log railings and specialty furniture items like dressers, night stands and coffee tables.

“The furniture business kind of spun off of the log home business,” he said.

Enderson’s newest venture — a winery — began with the advent of Rustic Winery LLC, a company he created in 2009 for the sole purpose of making wine racks. Rustic Winery LLC’s location at the former Wedge Nursery spurred the idea for yet another business: Three Oak Wines Wines, a company Enderson co-owns with minority owner, Dan Sorensen.

“We thought, ‘Hey, it would be a great place to grow grapes because it was an old nursery,’” he said. “Here you sit five years later, and we’re making wine.”

Although Three Oak Wines posted its first sales on Dec. 19, Enderson estimated the official opening with a tasting room is about a year away.

“If somebody would’ve told me five years ago that I’d be a licenced winemaker in the state of Minnesota, I don’t know if I’d have laughed, but I sure would’ve pushed it off,” he said. “You take strange paths sometimes, but that’s just the way it went.”

Jay Enderson

Age: 51

Address: 72096 Phillip Drive, Albert Lea

Immediate family: wife, Cheryl; sons Josh, Alex and Logan

Interesting fact: Enderson owns and lives in a five-bedroom Expedition Log Homes model house.