Emporia High will try to build on its best baseball season in three years by putting the program in the hands of a coach who was part of that success.
EHS announced the hiring Wednesday morning of Beau Welch as its new head coach after three years as an assistant. Welch replaces Mike Strickland, who was hired last week to be the new Spartan softball coach.
The job is the first as a head coach at the high school level for Welch. He’s also been an assistant for the EHS girls basketball team for seven years.
“I wish we could start tomorrow,” Welch said. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case, but it gives us a lot of time to set some things in place and build some excitement for next year.”
Emporia athletic director Britton Hart worked quickly to get a new coach in place with the start of school looming, and Welch’s familiarity with the Spartan program was a big factor in him landing the job out of a pool of three candidates.
“He’s done a lot of work with our kids in the summer that nobody’s asked him to do, and he’s excited about furthering those opportunities for our athletes and our students here at Emporia High School,” Hart said. “And I think that really is gonna make us more competitive in our league and provide our kids an opportunity to be successful.”
Welch will take over a team that went 11-10 last spring after winning just nine games the previous two seasons combined. The Spartans’ nucleus for 2010 will feature a senior class that includes pitcher Jacob Loucks (5-3, 2.48 ERA), a second team All-Centennial League selection last year, and all-league honorable mention catcher Remington Pinick (.320 batting average). Junior Brian Keisler (.312) was also an honorable mention.
“We still got a lot of work to do, but I’m really excited about our group we’ve got coming back,” Welch said. “It’s a great group to start with. Coach Strickland did a great job, really helped me out. So I’m very excited about it.”
Earlier this summer, Welch was the head coach for the inaugural session of the Emporia Baseball Academy, which offered instruction for youths between 8 and 12 years old. Giving high school athletes more opportunities to play ball during the year is something Welch plans to focus on.
“We’re gonna try to add some programs to our baseball program and some different seasons, some fall baseball,” he said. “... Starting some new things in the spring, just trying to keep (kids) excited about playing baseball and give ’em more opportunities to play baseball.”
Hart said he and Welch had already discussed making those kinds of opportunities available. They hope more extensive work on the game will help Emporia close the gap between the Spartans and the Centennial League’s perennial powers.
“Because at the end of the day, the Seamans and the Shawnee Heights are playing more baseball than our kids,” Hart said, “and really, we’re behind the 8-ball trying to make up between March and May, and we’re just not getting it done.”
The Spartans made their last trip to the State tournament in 2006, when they went 12-11 on the year. They slipped to 4-17 in 2007 and 5-16 in 2008 before last year’s return to a winning record, which included victories over Hayden and Manhattan.
Now, the Spartan players will attempt to take the next step with a coach they know.
“I can’t imagine it being much better,” Welch said. “I know every one of our kids coming back, I know what we’re going up against. So to me, it’s... very exciting, and I’m pretty comfortable about what we’ve got going, and pretty confident about what we can do in the future.”
runnincrazy (anonymous) says...
Congrats to Coach Welch. He is going to take over a senior class that is strong at all positions. We have a lot of underclassmen that will be able to add to our success during the 09-10 school year.
August 5, 2009 at 7:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )