Westside is gearing up for a season both with high promise and a new skipper leading the helm. Interim head coach Kevin Koch will be leading the charge for the Warriors coming into the season.
Koch was an assistant coach for the Warriors until 2019 until he went to coach his son’s team. But Koch has bounced around both high school and college levels. He coached both at Millard North where he used to play, as well and Burke at the high school level, and was an assistant coach both at the University of Nebraska and the University of Evansville in Illinois.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with and for a lot of good coaches across the years,” Koch said. “I use all of those experiences, I took a little bit, a little piece from each and every coach that I’ve worked with.”
For the Warriors their roster looks pretty similar to last year, only losing seven seniors with the main part of the core returning along with some younger players who will get their first taste of varsity action. Westside is returning with 12 seniors, four juniors and the rest underclassmen that have experience with baseball outside of Westside.
“I feel like the senior leadership helps us big time,” ]senior catcher Tre Savoie said. “We have a strong senior core, more leadership as well as some young guys will be able to step in and help us succeed.”
Along with Savoie, the Warriors have five players that have committed to the next level. From Arizona to Illinois the Warriors will have next level talent this season. Along with the star studded seniors the rest of the roster is complete too with many current juniors and sophomores playing at the varsity level both during the spring and summer. This includes sophomore Markus Chandler who burst onto the scene in his freshman year as a two-way player hitting .333 from the plate, which led the team, and a 2.8 ERA which was second on the team. He is ranked as the fifth best player in Nebraska according to Prep Baseball Nebraska and he will be a big part of both the pitching rotation as a starter and hitting, as well looking to improve on his big first season.
“ I think we’ve improved a lot in every aspect,” Chandler said. “I think we’re going to do a lot better this season, especially with games we shouldn’t have lost last season.”
Westside is coming off a lackluster season in which they had a 16-15 record and lost in the A1 district finals to the eventual state runner-up Lincoln East. The main chunk of those losses came on the road as they went 5-10 on the road compared to 10-3 at home, with the only losses at home coming to top ten teams. Streaks were a big part of the Warriors’ season as well. They had six stretches in the season in which they won or lost three or more games which helped contribute to that .500 record, with three winning streaks and three losing streaks.
The pitching rotation for the Warriors should be one of the best in many years. Though they lost ace Jay Coughlin, they replaced him with a great group of platoon pitchers. Chandler will be the most likely “ace” but Westside has one of the best pitching depths in the state. Along with Chandler, the Warriors are led in the rotation by Concordia commit Reid Beberniss who led the Warriors with a 2.56 ERA, Sauk Valley commit Anthony Barone and Bemidji State commit Jace Ostermeyer who is the only lefty of the group and rounds out a solid starting four for the Warriors to throw.
“I think our pitching is probably going to be one of our best assets,” Chandler said. “We’ve all gotten a lot stronger and if the hitting is there we have a good shot at state this season.”
In the batter’s box the Warriors are looking strong as well. Like with pitching, they lost two great hitters in Nick Anglim who was the main power bat last year and Charlie Henningsen who hit .321 which was second on the team. But the batters return most of the core including South Dakota State commit Nikola French, seniors Jack Schulz, Harry Yeager, Louis Hoffart and Savoie and juniors Burke Brown and Braeden Hosey along with new juniors and underclassmen who will be getting their shot at the next level of high school baseball.
“I think we have a really good core, a nucleus of that group that is back this year,” Koch said. “Obviously playing deep into the summer and the state championship with Legion was a valuable experience for them as well. Our guys have really seemed to pull together and bond, and they’re rooting for each other and playing for each other. Certainly our goal is to be playing in Warner Park.”
