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How Will the New Coaching Hires Fare? (updated 2/18/11, 4:30pm to
add new coach at Benson)
With the first day of baseball practice just ten days
away, it's time to think about some of the top
storylines that we'll be following throughout the 2011
season. We'll start our list with a look at the
top rung of the baseball ladder -- the head coaches.
The big news in the coaching ranks this year is the fact
that more twenty percent of the coaches will be starting
new jobs this spring. Twelve new head coaches have
been hired in the off-season, including eight new coaches
for existing programs and four skippers for the brand new
programs.
The new coaches in existing
programs are:
Doug Miller - Lincoln Southeast
Dustin Nilius - Wahoo
Eric Fisher - Omaha Bryan
Greg Geary - Millard South
Jake Wolf - Gretna
Jason Cullison - Norris
Shawn Exner - Omaha Skutt
Jason Coulter - Omaha Benson
A quick look at this list reveals that these guys are by no means
newbies. There's a lot of coaching experience in this group.
A teacher and varsity football assistant coach at Southeast, Doug
Miller has been coaching at Norris for the past three years where he
started as the program's first coach in 2009. He has put the Titans' on
a nice upward path, going 3-11 the first year, 9-14 the second year and
12-9 with a near miss on a state tournament berth last year. He takes
over for longtime skipper Randy Brolhorst who left a well-stocked
cupboard. Miller will be stepping into to a Class A program that has
only played in two state tournament games in the past eight years
despite having plenty of talent. Will the new guy be able to get a
talented Knights team to state in his first year?
Dustin Nilius has experience as an assistant at Skutt and as a
Legion head coach for the Millard Sox program. He takes over for Mike
Bomar who led the program for the past four years during which the
program didn't make it above .500. However, the Wahoo-Raymond Central
program did double its wins last year (from 4 to 8), providing some
momentum going into this year. The challenge for Nilius wil be keeping
things moving in a positive direction and attracting more talent. Now
that Prague is no longer in the co-op, perhaps he can lead an effort to
bring Wahoo Neumann in as a third team.
Probably regarded as the "youngster" in the bunch, twenty-six year old
Eric Fischer takes over at Omaha Bryan from Mike Demilia who will
serve as an assistant to Dave Cork at Burke. Fischer coached the Millard
West Junior Legion team to a state runner-up finish the past two years
and also has experience as a college assistant under highly-respected
head coach Bob Fornelli at Emporia State. Coaching at Bryan will be a
different experience than coaching at Millard West, and Fischer will
need to beat the bushes to develop a talent pipeline. Demilia took a
team to state in 2009, but most of those players are now gone. Fischer
is a patient and positive guy with a lot of baseball smarts. If he can
round up the players, he certainly knows how to get them to play.
It's hard to think of Greg Geary and Shawn Exner as "new"
coaches. Both are longtime assistants at their respective coaches and
both have been successfully serving as the Senior Legion head coaches of
their programs for several summers. But, nevertheless, they are stepping
into new roles in top programs where the expectations are always high.
Geary takes the reins from Trevor Longe who went to Elkhorn South as the
football head coach, and Exner follows Skutt baseball founding father
Keith Engelkamp. Both are well prepared to keep their programs on the
right track, but can they take them to the next level? Millard South
hasn't been in a state championship game in over a quarter century but
has the horses to get their this year. Meanwhile, at Skutt, a state
title eluded Engelkamp throughout his career, although he got
tantalizingly close last year when the SkyHawks dropped both games on
the final day.
Like Geary and Exner, Jake Wolf got his new job by way of
internal promotion. And, like Skutt and Millard South, the expectations
for success at Gretna are high after back-to-back third place spring
state tournament finishes and back-to-back Legion champships. As
an assistant, Wolf has been an integral part of that success and knows
his players well. The challenge will be filling the shoes of a talented
2010 senior class, but Wolf has some key building blocks returning, led
by senior catcher Kevin Andersen.
Jason Cullison, who takes over for Miller at Norris, has led the
Beatrice Eagles Junior Legion team to state titles four out of the past
five years. The NBCA 2009 Class B Junior Legion Coach of the Year
took over the head job in 2005 after serving an assistant to his father,
Southeast Community College head coach Ron Cullison, in the Eagles'
program for thirteen years. Cullison teaches at Norris Middle School and
knows the community and the kids in his new program. He'll be looking to
build on the foundation put in place by Miller and get Norris to its
first state tournament appearance.
After we originally published this article, we learned that Chris Burke
has stepped down as head coach at Omaha Benson, and the vacancy has been
filled by the hiring of Jason Coulter who has been Coach Burke's
assistant for the past five years. Coach Burke was at Benson for
the past eight years.
The new additions to spring baseball have done a good job of finding
quality coaches to start up their programs. The challenge for these
coaches will be successfully launching their programs into spring
baseball as they learn the ropes of a new system themselves.
They are:
Bruce Schlecht, West Point Central Catholic
Mike Huffman, Fort Calhoun
Kevin Finkey and Jeff Zeiss, Wayne
Todd Beran, Elkhorn South
Coach Schlecht has more than 35 years coaching experience with
the West Point Legion program and has notched eight state tournament
appearances, two championships and two runner-up finishes. For the past
five years has served as the Senior Legion head coach.
Mike Huffman is the head football coach at Fort Calhoun and was
previously a varsity baseball assistant under Mike Sortino at Omaha
Burke.
Kevin Finkey played baseball at Chadron State and coached Legion
ball in Rushville and Gering. Prior to being named co-head baseball
coach, he served as football and wrestling coach at Wayne. The other
co-head coach is city recreation director Jeff Zeiss, who coaches
both the American League Juniors and Seniors and played on the school's
1979 state runner-up team. Prior to baseball being discontinued at Wayne
HS in 1984, the school had won three state championships.
Todd Beran has previous coaching experience at Westside and for
the past two years has served as a varsity assistant to Elkhorn head
coach Steve Frey. In anticipation of the opening of Elkhorn South, Beran
has served as the head coach of an Elkhorn Junior Legion team for the
past two years that is composed of players expected to attend Elkhorn
South. Beran will know his players well but will be without a senior
class this year as the Class of 2011 was kept together at Elkhorn High.
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