Next: Lakota West junior varsity baseball
In his first season, Firebirds coach Tim Stidham helps team collect wins, continues to develop talent.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
In its 11 years of existence, Lakota West High's varsity baseball team has not suffered through a losing season.
And one of the reasons for that is the success of the Firebirds' junior varsity program.
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Get latest headlines via RSS feeds"To develop quality players for the varsity team," West JV coach Tim Stidham said of the main goal. "We want to present Coach D. (varsity coach Bill Dreisbach) with five starters every year. We're constantly restocking and reloading the varsity team. That's our job. If you prepare people properly, wins are a by-product."
Thus far, the wins are coming for both the varsity and JV squads, with the latter club winning eight of its first 13 games.
"We're developing and we're playing better than we were when the season started," said Stidham, who is in his first year at the helm. "Defensively, we're a better team than the first game we played, and our pitching staff is doing an excellent job so far this season. Offensively, we're playing better, but we still have a long way to go. Our pitching and defense have been carrying us so far."
Junior Taylor Hedric, and sophomores Preston Thompson, Wes Kelly and Brian Abrams are the squad's top hurlers.
Abrams, junior Michael Seifert, and sophomores Garrett Gordon, Paul Ewashko and Mark Fowler are offensive threats, while the outfielders are sophomores Daniel Novak, Adam Valko and Kyle Parido.
Sophomore Dustin Smith is the team's third baseman, and junior Sean Oatman is a converted shortstop.
"It's a fairly athletic and talented group," said Stidham, who lost juniors Alex Wilking and Adam Bittinger to varsity. "As they grow and understand the game of baseball more, many of them will be quality starters on the varsity in the next year or two."
Junior Jonathan Tenhundfeld, and sophomores Zach Davis, Brian Wagoner, John Peters and Collin Shaw round out the Firebirds' roster.
Stidham's son Mike, an '07 West grad, and Jeff Gatch are assistants.
"The GMC rigors are awfully difficult," Tim Stidham said. "You have to come to play every day. They're all big schools and they all have quality players.
"I expect we'll continue to grow and play well, and I suspect we'll win 75 percent of our remaining games."
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5113 or smatthews@coxohio.com.
