The baseball team is swinging through the competition as they begin their season with a record of 3-0.
Head coach Robert Keane is excited to see what the season holds as the program has “a good mix of new and old players.”
Those returning players include three-year varsity players senior Justin (JT) Augustyniak, junior Sam Bathan, and senior Ryan Perry.
Keane is entering his 14th year as baseball coach and his second as the varsity head coach. With that experience, Keane has developed his own unique coaching style.
“I would say I’m a passionate coach. We deal with the little things in practice, and in the game I let the guys do them. I don’t want to micro-manage on gameday,” Keane said.
The entire team seems to be motivated by the same goal: going further than any recent team has gone.
“Win a regional, that is the whole team goal,” Bathan said.
According to senior Jeffery Maliska, teams like “JCA, Minooka, and Providence have tons of talent,” and will be in their way if they want to be successful in the early part of the season.
Even with the knowledge that excellent competition is on the horizon, senior Sam Medina believes those tough games are “winnable.”
Keane acknowledges that the Southwest Prairie Conference is tough to play in as “anybody can beat anybody on any given day.”
The goals derive from a tradition of winning, as the last couple of teams have been playoff contenders and the 2023 squad won conference.
“My favorite memory from playing baseball was winning a playoff game last year against United Township,” Medina said.
According to Keane, memories can be made through the big moments but they can also be shared by making “important relationships with the players”.
Several players have plans to play after their Wildcat career is over, one of whom is Augustyniak, who was awarded All-Conference and All-Area for his junior season performance.
“I am going to attend Kaskaskia Junior College for the next two years and then plan on going to a bigger four year school to continue playing,” Augustyniak said.
