Berlin Center Western Reserve

[countywidehasbeen]

Saw where the Head Coach job came open at Western Reserve. What happened to previous coach? What is the recent history of the program?

[111411]

They usually have a pretty good team. There are a lot of athletes in Berlin Center.

[smartestdumbguy01]

Mike Kopachy was the head baseball coach until recently stepping down; he is the current football coach so he was wearing both hats for a couple of years. It's a shame too because he is one heck of a baseball coach but I think something had to give.
I'm interested to see who they hire for this job.

[111411]

Mike Kopachy was the head baseball coach until recently stepping down; he is the current football coach so he was wearing both hats for a couple of years. It's a shame too because he is one heck of a baseball coach but I think something had to give.
I'm interested to see who they hire for this job.

Kopachy did a great job at WR. Is there anyone in the system qualified?

[smartestdumbguy01]

His assistant for the past three years and one of his former players from his early days John Armeni.

[3sport]

I do not think Reserve will miss a beat no matter who the coach is. They have kids who are baseball players and don't necessarily need to be taught the fundamentals of baseball. I'm not saying they don't need to be coached, because they all have a lot to learn, but it is more or less minor critiques to their game in order to get over that hump of a league championship. One of the things that has helped this through the years is the Western Reserve Baseball Organization(WRBO) which is the youth program, or farm system as I call it. The farm system is for anyone from the ages 4-18 that lives in the school district and the WRBO has helped produce players like Joe Serensky Jr., Mike Stenstrud, Frank Miranda, Josh Koher, Fred Olinger, Andrew Lenhart, Chris Mountain, Luke Srock, Nick Sanders, Jake Zatchok, Brock Christie, Ryan Pauken, Jared Barker, John Porterfield, Dave Drevna, Matt Kalbfell, and Tom Burton. It is amazing that with all of the talent and with two regional semi-final appearances, that Western Reserve has NEVER won an ICL or ITCL league championship.

All of those players were products of the farm system and they have A LOT of ball players coming up within the next few years. Reserve has also been able to be fortunate enough to bring in kids like Brandon Keck and Brandon Moherman who came to Reserve in high school, Keck being the cornerstone of Reserve's best teams and Moherman who was the last four-year letter winner for the Blue Devils, who as a freshman, earned the short-stop position from an under achieving senior.

As far as the candidates go, Coach Armeni who has been Coach Kopachys main go to guy the past three seasons, has to be the leader. I am sure there will be outside applicants but whoever gets the job will have a very easy job to do when it comes to winning. The main problem at Reserve, is the attitude of the kids as they become satisfied with mediocracy through coming to play against the sub-par competition but when the tough competition games come, their play makers are no where to be found and they struggle as a team. They lack leadership with a small senior class of athletes and the junior class has no one willing to step up and take charge.

[smartestdumbguy01]

I couldn't agree more that the kids are good and receptive to learning but I couldn't disagree more with the fact that "whoever gets the job will have an easy time winning"

Young kids with some talent still have to learn correct technique, what sometimes happens is they are so much better than the rest of the kids they get away with doing things improper, and if they aren't taught the proper way then they will struggle and everyone will want to know why little johnny was a God at 12 and can't hit JV pitching.

A coach's job in baseball is never easy because there are so many aspects of the game you are responsible for teaching the kids, and usually you have little help. WR needs to keep developing a JV program, Coach Kopachy bent over backwards to keep the JV program over the past few seasons even when numbers were down because he knew that those kids needed to play as often as possible and now there seems to be some young kids who will at least bring up the numbers so that needs to be the new coaches first priority.

There are no perfect job's...WR needs to keep with the same fold and hire a guy who can teach it...not just someone who was on a good staff or is from the community...someone who can keep teaching these kids the right way to play the game just like Coach Kopachy did during his tenure.

[3sport]

you know anything about the other applicant from Ursuline?

there are only two applicants for the position, which is hard to imagine considering the tradition at Reserve. wonder why there aren't any more people interested?

[CC55]

don't get bamboozled by the fact that he is from ursuline. he is no durkin or metzinger.

[smartestdumbguy01]

hopefully they don't wait too long to pick a coach so that whoever it is they have ample time to finalize a staff and get their off season workout schedule put together.

[StIlLaRoUnD]

They will always put up a fight in the league, and lead the league in Homeruns also, since they play in a little league field.. What is it to Center field, 210 feet. Just kidding. I look forward to another competive year for the Devils.

[3sport]

we should know who gets the job by the middle of december. they will be accepting applications until the 5th, and then the board will approve whoever at their next meeting, which i believe is the second week in december.