The kids have been shocked with how things have started. So, this was a good way to turn things around.

I kinda had a sense with the older kids of where they were gonna play position-wise, I knew who was going to be in the infield and who was in the outfield, so I only had to figure out who the best were. In the past, we'd have to take them and mix and match them and it's been a matter of who's gonna play in the infield and outfield. This year, we've been able to focus on each individual position.

Who's at the advantage? Either you haven't had to use as many pitchers, or you've gotten more innings and more at-bats. ... In general, I think the more innings you play the better off you are.

All the rest of them are playing nine innings, and the coaches in the West wanted to play nine innings (as they did last year), but the athletic directors didn't want to. Whether it was to save money or what, I don't know why.

We have a good core of kids to build the team around, and that's really encouraging. I've seen these kids work very hard during the indoor season, and now we're going to see what we're about ... It's nice to train but opening day and that first meet is always exciting.

We've always had kids from all over come here. This program has been a magnet for good wrestlers from around the state, but our link with the Navy Juniors program has been pretty good for us the past few years.