From the way veteran baseball coach Jason Howser tells it, his Kickapoo Chiefs best not walk around town assuming that this spring will be a repeat of last year.
Otherwise, the joke – and not a funny one – will be on them.
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“We can’t get ahead of ourselves,” Howser said recently, doing so against a backdrop of a 24-10 season that led to Kickapoo’s first semifinal appearance in decades and a third-place finish in Class 5. “We have to treat practice like it’s the most important one. That’s what we are going to be judged by.”
It’s not as if Kickapoo lost everybody from a year ago, but three key pieces to the puzzle graduated. And so as the sun rises on a new season, several Chiefs will find themselves in more prominent roles.
Besides, the schedule will be breathing down their collective necks in no time, with five or six games a week in the season’s first month.
Hence, Howser playing the role of coach-preacher this preseason, except that his pulpit is the ball field. After 13 years on the job, he’s seen other teams, successful the year before, struggle to regain their focus.
As he put it, “Complacency is the opponent of success and improvement.”
Fortunately for Kickapoo, the Chiefs offer several pieces to work with – especially on the pitching staff – following the graduations of starting pitcher Logan Wiley, now at Kansas State, and top hitter Danny Crews, now at Fort Scott (Kan.) juco.
Kaleb Schmidt moves into the No. 1 starting pitching role, and for good reason. He’s got a four-pitch mix – four-seam fastball, sinker, slider, change-up – and has signed with Central Arkansas, an NCAA Division I program. He was 7-1 with a 1.50 earned run average in 64 innings last season, and apparently his strike-throwing mindset piqued the interest of UCA coaches. He struck out 77.
“That’s what I liked about him, too,” Howser said. “He’s 5-10, 5-11 and they didn’t shy away from that. He gets outs.”
Tristan Stevens moves from closer to the likely No. 2. He struck out 18 in 12.2 innings.
“Talk about a kid who has worked hard,” Howser said. “He added size, and velocity on his fastball. He can change speeds, but he’s going to come at you with a fastball. He’s always been in a relief role. I think he could have a great year.”
A handful of other arms will see varsity innings, especially early as Kickapoo navigates through the early season schedule.
Junior Adam Link, the set-up man last year, will shift to a starting pitching role. Also look for Kyle Giefer, Nolan Below, Michael Barnes and Bailey Cantu in the mix.
Giefer has signed with Harding, an NCAA Division II program, while Barnes is a junior left-hander. Cantu suffered a broken ankle just before preseason and should be ready in a month.
In essence, there are 210 innings for a half-dozen pitchers.
“That in-house competition really should make us better as the season goes on,” Howser said. “In high school athletics, you’re going to go through ups and downs. So we’re going to have to build up arms.”
Fortunately, the senior handling all these pitchers is Westin Gann, the catcher. Howser calls him a coach on the field and that's why he is going to College of the Ozarks to play baseball. Which is fitting, given C of O is known as Hard Work U. and Howser calls Gann “Hard Work.”
“He’s a great defensive catcher,” Howser said, noting Gann's throws to second average 2.0 seconds. “He calls a good game. He blocks extremely well. We’re really fortunate to have him.”
The lineup, however, will be a work in progress early on.
Geifer may well bat leadoff, but shortstop Preston Keisker is in the mix or could bat second. The heart of the order features Drury commit Riley Herron, Stevens and first baseman Chandler Jones. Schmidt, Robbie Merced and Gann will likely bat lower in the order, with Andrew Kauffman vying for the designated hitter role.
Corey Johnson, Zac Salyers and Sean Cole also could be factors. The graduation of Brad Jarman also creates a vacancy for a “glue guy” who can emerge from the shadows.
“Geifer, he’s one of those guys who can a little bit of everything,” Howser said. “He’s very disciplined at the plate, which is what I like out of a leadoff hitter. But he can drive in runs when we need him to.”
Kickapoo lacks a power hitter. The Chiefs hit only two home runs last year. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They did drive in 175 runs.
“That’s the thing I like about all of our guys. They can hit for a high average,” Howser said, adding that he wants to see better two-strike approaches. “We’ll hit a lot of line drives. That’s why the way these guys are wired.”
Overall, 32 are on the roster covering varsity and junior varsity. That is the highest number in Howser’s tenure.
“We’ve got a lot of kids that can play,” Howser said. “That consistent, in-house pressure vying for a spot, we’re banking on it as the season goes on.”
It also could guard against complacency.
Howser’s been telling his players this:
“Last year is over. It’s a great memory,” Howser said. “But this year we haven’t won a game. We have to stick to the fundamentals and take it one pitch at a time. If we buy into that, we’ll improve over time.
“That’s why we got to the Final Four last year. We had to deal with adversity. Can we learn from the past and apply it every day?”
