Zach Winn
Equinox Staff
The Keene State College baseball team is experimenting with a junior varsity team this season for the first time in ten years.
“I think it’s going to give [students] an opportunity to get better on the field, just experiencing game situations,” Head Varsity Coach Ken Howe said. “And we backed up a big senior class last year with another big one this year so a lot of these guys will be gone soon and it gives the other ones a chance to still compete.”
Howe, who was an assistant coach back when KSC last had a JV team, said the program stopped serving its purpose when they discontinued it in 2003. Howe explained that a strong recruiting class led to mostly upperclassmen occupying the JV spots, meaning the team wasn’t developing any talent. “[The JV team] is a building program not a hanging-on program,” Howe said.
But things have changed since then, and now the Owls find themselves with a roster featuring seven seniors and nine juniors, both high figures.
The amount of upperclassmen that already have major roles on the team doesn’t leave a lot of room for new players to get game experience and the JV team will provide that.
The Owls aren’t the only ones who see the advantages in a JV team. Fellow Little East Conference teams; University of Southern Maine and Eastern Connecticut State University also have successful JV programs.
Howe sees it as a risk-free move, saying there are ‘zero’ disadvantages to adding the team. The players seem to feel that way as well. When asked if he was worried about being demoted mid-season, freshman catcher Ian Schoonmaker said, “I’m not because if I’m struggling I would want to go down to JV and get more at bats so I can work on my stuff down there.”
The players are expecting only good things out of the new team. Being able to tell recruits they’ll have an opportunity to play their first year doesn’t hurt either.
The team will be coached by Jeff Pelkey, Kyle Morill and Tim Thiesing all of whom are former players, graduating from KSC last year. Most of the specifics are still being worked out. Asked how each roster was coming, Howe said every player was on both teams for now. The schedule is still not completed either, as only a few LEC teams have a JV squad.
But Coach Howe thinks everything will fall into place as the season progresses. When asked how his players will deal with it, Howe doesn’t pretend to know all the answers.
“Honestly, I think that’s yet to be determined, the players know the situation so they’re out here competing trying to get those spots and we’ll see how it plays out,” Howe said.
At least the team has time. The Owls open their season on March 1 against St. Joseph’s University.
They may not know exactly how this experiment will work out, but the bottom line is that if the team loses starters through the course of the long season, they know they can confidently call on a back up who’s prepared for the game.
Zach Winn can be contacted
at zwinn@keene-equinox.com