In October 2024, Westside announced that Jason Shockey would be the new manager for Westside baseball after his contract expired with Bellevue West at the end of the 2025 season.
Shockey brings lots of experience to Westside, both as a player and a staffer. Shockey attended Ralston High School and set the NSAA single-season batting average record of .621 in 1999. Shockey took his talents to the collegiate level at Indian Hills Community College for his freshman and sophomore seasons before transferring to Ohio University for his last two seasons. In his 2003 season, he batted .288/.336/.374 (AVG/OBP/SLG) with 2 home runs and 27 RBI’s.
After hanging up the spikes, he decided to pick up the whistle and become an assistant coach at Iowa Western from 2003-2006 and Creighton from 2006-2008 as the hitting coach. During his time with the Bluejays, he helped develop Westside alum Darin Ruf into a superstar with a career .331/.432/.508 splits with 27 home runs, 205 rbi’s, and 275 hits in his four years with the Jays. Ruf went on to be drafted in the 20th round of the 2009 MLB draft and eventually had a long and successful career in the majors.
In 2015, Shockey took the job as the skipper at Bellevue West and turned them into a consistent contender. His first season saw the Thunderbirds go 15–11, and the program quickly improved the following year with a 22–7 record in 2016, finishing inside the top ten in the state. The Thunderbirds had a brief stint of struggles, but after the cancelled 2020 season, the program had one of its best years under Shockey in 2021, finishing 29–7 and ranked among the top teams in Class A while making a deep postseason push to the semifinal. The Thunderbirds went 17–12 in 2022, 19–12 in 2023, and followed it up with an impressive 27–8 season in 2024, finishing ranked sixth in the state and reaching the state tournament. During that stretch, they reached the state tournament three times in four seasons, further solidifying the program as one of the metro’s stronger programs.
The Warriors were a powerhouse with 21 state appearances and 7 titles, including dominant 2014 and 2015 seasons under manager Bob Greco, but since his retirement in 2019, the Warriors have not been able to pick up where he left off. Since 2020, Westside has fallen short of the state tournament 4 out of the last five years. After years of disappointing results, Westside swung hard to land Shockey to turn the program around.
For Shockey, the job at Westside was too good to pass up.
“This school has had a tradition of excellence in the classroom and in all of the extracurricular activities for as long as I can remember. That in itself is very enticing,” Shockey said.
Shockey emphasized the strong tradition and appeal of the program when explaining his decision to take the position.
“From a baseball specific standpoint, this place has as rich a history as any. Combine that with the outstanding facilities that we are fortunate to have here at Westside, and it made a great situation, very difficult to turn down,” Shockey said.
Shockey takes over a squad that only went 11-15 and lost in districts last season under interim manager Kevin Koch. Westside faces low expectations across the state in year one under coach Shockey, but that doesn’t change what he believes this team is capable of.
“I’ve had numerous people tell me that it’ll take some time and our expectations shouldn’t be too high early on,” Shockey said.
Shockey also made it clear that his expectations remain high.
“I find it very difficult to accept that because we have 7 seniors who have sacrificed so much. How do I tell them that we are going to ‘lessen’ our expectations because it is my first year? This is not about me, it is about our student-athletes and our program,” Shockey said.
The Shockey effect is already being seen within the first few weeks of play. Westside currently sits at an astonishing 16-2 record, collecting big wins against Millard West, Papillion-Lavista, Creighton Prep, Lincoln Southwest, and massive upsets over number-one-ranked Lincoln East and number-two-ranked Millard North to take first at the Frank Ryan Invitational. The Warriors have propelled into first in the state in multiple polls.
The club’s success has been rooted in its dominance at the plate, which has been a major problem as of late for the Warriors. A big factor in their lackluster 2025 season was their lack of run support and producing hits. Through the first 17 games, the offense is averaging 8.5 runs per game, which is about double what they averaged last season. Last season, they didn’t have a single batter with a .300 batting average, but this roster features six in Easton Lunn (.433), Braeden Hosey (.414), Ben Everroad (.391), Schliefer (.391), Duncan Hansen (.370) and Liam Cronican (.317).
Jason Shockey took over this program with hopes of returning it to the glory days, and just a month into his tenure, it looks like they will be a powerhouse once again very quickly.
