Baseball preview

There are all new faces in the coaching ranks of the OHHS baseball team this year. Former coach Jim Waller retired after 3 decades of coaching, and after some tough interviews, former OHHS player Tyson Van Dam was selected to lead the team.

Coach Van Dam was raised in Oak Harbor and after graduating from OHHS played for 2 years at Edmonds Community College where the team won the Junior College Championships both years, then went on to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke where he played another 2 years.

When not on the diamond, Coach Van Dam works as a personal trainer at the new Thrive gym. When asked why he wanted to coach baseball, he said “Baseball is a major part of my life”, and he also wanted a chance to give back some of what he’s learned over the years.

Right now, there are only 3 returning seniors, Bennett Richter, Curtis Weaver and Jim Koepke. New to the team this year is senior Kyle Magana.

Coach Van Dam has only worked with his boys for a week, so hasn’t learned all their strengths and weaknesses, but he expects his young team to be competitive. He’s impressed so far with the speed of his defense, which will be a big plus.

Personally, Coach Van Dam expects to learn and grow with the team as the season progresses. He would like to encourage OH community members and OHHS students to come out and watch the team in action. There will be lots of home games, and best of all, they are FREE!

Coaching the JV team this year is Joel Schelling from Riverside, CA. He’s only been in Oak Harbor for a few months, but brings a wealth of baseball experience. In addition to his high school experience in California, where his team was the Sectional champs, he played for 3 years at Biola University, getting to the 3rd round of the NAIA College World Series. As JV coach, his main job is to prepare the players for the varsity team, and as part of that job, he will concentrate not so much on winning games, but ensuring that each player grows and develops not just as a player, but as a team member.

OHHS Counselor Jeremy Day is the new Freshman coach. He’s from Electric City, WA (near the Grand Coulee Dam) and played baseball at Lake Roosevelt HS before attending college at Whitworth in Spokane. It’s his first year coaching, and is excited to get back into baseball, especially to experience the smell and sounds on the field. He loves baseball because at the same time, it’s both a simple and complex. He sees his job on the Freshman team as similar to the JV coach – develop his players individually and as team members while minimizing errors. He expects to gain a deeper understanding of the teaching side of baseball, especially taking his thoughts and visions and turning them into performance on the field.

These 3 coaches will be helped by volunteer assistants Harlon Miles, Keith Snavely and Camden Schutte.

21 questions with the coaches:

Coach Van Dam –
Xbox, Playstation, or Wii – Xbox
McDonald’s or Burger King – None - Subway
Comedy or Horror – Comedy
OHMS or NWMS – NWMS
Seahawks or Mariner – Mariners
Shop class or Art class – Shop
iPhone or Blackberry – None – Old School phone
Coke or Pepsi – Coke
House or Lost – Neither
Army or Navy – Navy
Boating or Camping – Boating
Running or Swimming – Running
Ford, Honda, or VW – Ford
MAC or PC/Windows – Mac
El Caz, Mi Pueble, or Estebans – Mi Pueblo
Math or Science – Math
Walmart or Kmart – Kmart
Cats or Dogs – Dogs
Red or Blue – Blue
NY or LA – LA
Huskies or Cougars - Cougars

Something you probably didn’t know about him: He loves getting up at 3:45am for work!

Coach Schelling –

Xbox, Playstation, or Wii – Wii
McDonald’s or Burger King – None – no junk food!
Comedy or Horror – Comedy
OHMS or NWMS – Neither
Seahawks or Mariner – Mariners
Shop class or Art class – Shop
iPhone or Blackberry – iPhone
Coke or Pepsi – Pepsi
House or Lost – House
Army or Navy – Navy
Boating or Camping – Camping
Running or Swimming – Swimming
Ford, Honda, or VW – Ford
MAC or PC/Windows – Mac
El Caz, Mi Pueble, or Estebans – Estebans
Math or Science – Science
Walmart or Kmart – Walmart
Cats or Dogs – Dogs
Red or Blue – Blue
NY or LA – LA
Huskies or Cougars - Huskies

Coach Day –

Xbox, Playstation, or Wii – Xbox
McDonald’s or Burger King – Mickey Ds
Comedy or Horror – Comedy
OHMS or NWMS – OHMS
Seahawks or Mariner – Mariners
Shop class or Art class – Shop
iPhone or Blackberry – iPhone
Coke or Pepsi – Pepsi
House or Lost – Lost
Army or Navy – Navy
Boating or Camping – Camping
Running or Swimming – Swimming
Ford, Honda, or VW – Ford
MAC or PC/Windows – Mac
El Caz, Mi Pueble, or Estebans – El Cazador
Math or Science – Math
Walmart or Kmart – Kmart
Cats or Dogs – Dogs
Red or Blue – Blue
NY or LA – LA
Huskies or Cougars - Cougars