Current Burke assistant coach Scott Hodges will wear two hats, or rather ballcaps, for the upcoming 2009 season.  Hodges will be back at Burke this spring for his third season as a varsity assistant coach but will trade in his black and gold Bulldogs cap at the end of the spring season for a red and blue Ralston First State Bank cap.  Hodges has recently been named the head coach of the Ralston Senior American Legion team, according to an announcement by Hodges at a December 7th meeting of Metro League coaches.  Hodges also announced that two of his former players at Omaha Central, David Cleveland and Corey Tomasek, will be the Junior Legion coaches for Ralston First State Bank next summer.    Coach Hodges will continue as tournament director of the annual Battle of Omaha Tournaments held during and around the College World Series, a personal project that he has developed into a major summer tournament event over the past several years.  (See www.battleofomaha.org) 

Marty Santoni, who has served as head baseball coach of both the spring high school team and the summer  American Legion team for the past four seasons at Ralston, will remain as the spring season coach of the Ralston High Rams but will not coach the Legion team during the summer.  Santoni, a former assistant coach under long-time head coach Curt Shockey, took the head job in 2005 following Shockey's resignation.  Shockey currently serves as the hitting coach for Westside High School and the Grubb & Ellis Senior Legion team, and is a Manager and Senior Instructor at Frozen Ropes baseball facility.  

Hodges was the head coach at Omaha Central from 1999 until 2006 and is credited with rebuilding that program and establishing Boyd Park as the home field of the Eagles with an ambitious renovation of the once-neglected ballfield.  Hodges was dismissed from the head coaching job following the Eagles' inaugural season at Boyd Park in 2006 for reasons that have never been publicly disclosed by OPS supervisors.  The following year, Hodges transferred to Omaha Burke where he served as a varsity assistant under head coach Mike Sortino during the spring and then took primary coaching responsibility for the Bulldogs' Senior Legion team while Sortino attended summer school in 2007.  Following Sortino's abrupt resignation for personal reasons just prior to the beginning of the 2008 spring season, many observers speculated that Hodges would be the leading candidate for that vacancy, or would, at least, serve as interim head coach during the spring 2008 season.  Instead, Bruce Palmer, a Burke teacher with limited varsity coaching experience, was brought in as the interim coach, and current coach Kevin Koch, was hired at the end of the spring to fill the permanent position.  Coach Hodges stayed on as varsity assistant under both Palmer and Koch, and will remain on Koch's staff next spring.

Of his new coaching opportunity, Hodges commented, "one of the things that really excited me about this position is the opportunity to build upon the rich baseball tradition that Ralston has become known for. This is a team that went to the Class B State Legion Tournament last year and returns a lot of kids this year, so the sky is the limit as far as their potential goes."

The two new Ralston Junior Legion coaches were both standouts for Hodges at Central.  David Cleveland is a 2005 Omaha Central graduate who was a First Team All-Nebraska selection and MVP of the Collin-Orcutt All-Star Game his senior season.  Former Eagle Corey Tomasek is a senior right-handed pitcher at Truman State University,  an NCAA D-II school formerly known as Northeast Missouri State University, in Kirksville, Missouri.  Burke former head coach Mike Sortino will assist Hodges with the varsity.

In other coaching news, Tim Champ, the current Senior Legion coach for Fremont First State Bank will take over for Roger Ortmeier as the spring season coach for Archbishop Bergan High School in Fremont.  Fremont High School participates in that program as a co-op school.  First Team All-Nebraska outfielder Justin Beranek, a starter since his freshman year, returns for his senior season for Coach Champ.

At Class B Gretna, Mike Hagge, who served as head coach of the Gretna Post 216 Senior Legion team last season, has been hired as the new head spring season head coach for the Gretna High Dragons, according to Athletic Director Todd Mueller.  Hagge takes over from interim co-head coaches Mike Castagnoli and Russ Fittje who more than adequately filled the vacancy created when newly hired head coach James Stevens resigned the day before the spring season began last year.  The Dragons lost six of their first seven games before Castagnoli and Fittje righted the ship and led Gretna to an 11-12 record and a state tournament appearance in which the Dragons defeated #1 seed Roncalli before losing to Gross and state runner-up Skutt.   Castagnoli, who also serves as the commissioner of the Nebraska Reserve Baseball League, will continue as varsity assistant for the new coach.

Hagge is the the fourth head coach in five years for Gretna, which added baseball in 2005.  Corey Schrack held the position for the first three years of the program before leaving to become a varsity assistant under Dave Cork at Millard North.  Coach Hagge has a solid baseball resume, having coached youth baseball for several years, including a Millard Metro select team that featured current Creighton University standouts Brandon Knox and Robby Knight.  Hagge also served as an assistant coach at Bellevue University under head coach Mike Evans for four years, working primarily with hitting and outfielders, before taking over the head Legion coaching responsibilities for Waterloo-Valley for two seasons.  Coach Hagge will retain the current Junior Varsity coaching staff, consisting of Brad White and Jake Wulf.  The Dragons lost eight seniors from last year's squad but look to rebuild around standout pitcher Steve Weideman.

Other coaching changes and additions for the spring 2009 season include Jason Meggison taking over at Blair for Jon Small, Mike Greene-Walsh being named Head Varsity Coach at Omaha North after filling in as interim head coach last spring following the unexpected departure of Scott Wulfing, Mike Goodrich being named as the first head coach of the new Waverly High program and John Arensberg being selected as head coach of the new Yutan / Mead program. 

Metro area summer season Legion coaching changes include the following:  David Cleveland and Corey Tomasek, new Junior Legion coaches at Ralston, Romie Brown, head coach of a second Papillion LaVista Junior Legion team (to be called the Papillion LaVista Monarchs), and Ty Anderson, new Junior Legion coach of the Deeb Eagles (Omaha Central).  Anderson was the Eagles' varsity pitching coach last season and takes over for Jerry Kreber, who will coach the spring JV team at Central.

At the December 7th Metro League meeting it was also announced that Elkhorn Post 211 will add a second Junior Legion team, to be called the Elkhorn Bucks.  Including Elkhorn and Papillion LaVista, there are now five American Legion programs that will have two Junior Legion teams each playing in the Metro League.  The others are Millard West, Westside and Creighton Prep. 

In other Metro League news, the following announcements were made:

• Twenty-two Senior Legion teams and twenty-four Junior Legion will compete in the Metro League for 2009.  The teams are assigned to either the American Division or the National Division (see assignments below)

• The Senior Legion teams will play a League schedule consisting of ten games, all against teams from the same division.

• The Junior Legion teams will play a League schedule consisting of eleven games, all against teams from the same division.

• League games are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, beginning May 26-27 and running through July 1.  No games are scheduled for Wednesday, June 17 so that teams may participate in CWS tournaments. 

• Final League standings will be used to seed the Class A Areas 1-4 post-season tournaments.   (Note:  Roncalli competes in Class B).

• All League games must be completed prior to the seeding meeting on July 8th.  Any games not played will count as a loss for both teams. 

• Post-season Area Tournaments for both Juniors and Seniors will begin on July 15 with State Tournaments for both programs beginning on July 24.

 

Metro League Junior Legion 2009 - Division Assignments American Division National Division Westside Papillion LaVista Omaha Skutt Catholic Omaha Gross Catholic Millard West Papillion LaVista South Creighton Prep Bellevue East Omaha Bryan Millard North Millard South Omaha Northwest Omaha Central Omaha Burke Elkhorn Ralston Westside Warriors Bellevue West Millard Sox Prep Bones Omaha North Elkhorn Bucks Papillion LaVista Monarchs Millard West Cats As in past years, BaseballNebraska.com will publish schedules, results and standings of the Metro League during the season.