After a canceled spring season, and a shortened American Legion campaign last summer, baseball programs at Blair, Arlington and Fort Calhoun High School return to the diamond this weekend.
Provided weather and field conditions allow for season openers, the Pioneers are scheduled to play this afternoon at Twin River after Thursday's home game against Omaha Concordia.
The Bears, meanwhile, were set to play at Bennington on Thursday, before scheduled home games against Nebraska City and Elkhorn on Friday and Saturday.
Arlington will play at Omaha Northwest tonight, too.
Roan leads BHS into new season
John Roan led his first Blair baseball team for about two weeks of practice in 2020 before coronavirus led to the season's cancellation.
Now, in 2021, the head coach leads a new team alongside assistants James Bilslend, Lance Hansen and AJ Bilslend. Though the Post 154 Senior American Legion team was able to play a shortened summer season last year, and finished a win shy of the unofficial Class B state finals, many of those players are now BHS graduates.
This year's team returns seniors Nolan Osterhaus, Morgan Rump and Cade Ulven as major contributors from that squad, though. Roan noted Shea Wendt, Brady Brown and J'shawn Unger as newcomers to keep an eye on, while Junior Legion standouts from last summer may also make their varsity mark.
The Bears' Dex Larsen also returned for team photo day this month after batting at a .361 average as a sophomore in 2019. Osterhaus, Ulven and Wyatt Ogle also had at-bats during that season — Nebraska's most recent high school campaign.
FCHS returns experience
Fort Calhoun's Roy Prauner will be the only Washington County head baseball coach not leading his team through a first season this spring.
The 10-year vet also has an experienced lineup, though the coach noted major positions to fill since the last time the Pioneers played. Kaden Therkildsen, Cole Klabunde and Joel Fern are gone from FCHS' 4-8 Senior Legion team last summer, but Jake Seina, Justin Myer, Tylan Conner, Harrison Schmitt, Zach Faucher and Ty Hallberg return with baseball letters. Five of those six players contributed 33 hits as sophomores and freshmen in 2019 during the last NSAA-sanctioned high school baseball season.
While Prauner — who also listed Tristan Fuhrman as a newcomer to keep an eye on this spring — doesn't want to set expectations for wins and stats this spring, he does expect to see the Pioneers compete. He wants to see it every day and every pitch at FHCS.
Stender starts tenure at AHS
Former AHS assistant coach Tyler Stender was set to take the reigns of the program last spring, but that first season was canceled by coronavirus.
Instead, the manager was forced to wait until June 2020 for prep baseball. The Eagles' Senior American Legion team went 6-7 with Stender back as an assistant, and, now, goes into the first NSAA-sanctioned season since 2019 with that experience. AHS will have a veteran coaching staff behind Stender as well with Rusty Hilgenkamp and Ed Menking returning to the dugout.
On the field, Aiden Foreman, Zach Vanek, Nick Smith and Dustin Kirk return with starting experience. Stender noted state wrestling champ Josh Miller, Trevor Denker and Kaden Pittman as varsity newcomers to keep an eye on, too. Miller played a key role on the Senior Legion team last summer.
