Ray Conner
Sports Editor

Despite a new feel, the jayvee Broncs baseball team looks to continue its winning ways.

First year head coach Pat Kaufman (see related story above) likes what he has seen so far. With an even mix of freshman and sophomores with a lot of leadership, Kern Valley has a chance to bring home another HDL title. Kaufman’s coaching staff consists, of Brent Mixon, Kyle Dooley and Jimmy Thompson.

His team consists of 16 players with eight sophomores and eight freshman.

The sophomores on the team include, Shane Russell, Stephen Corcoran, Lawrence Frenes, Dylan Atkinson, Rusty Muncy, Robert Ochoa, Camron Lanterman and Anthony Hernandez. The freshmen on the squad include, Corey Mixon, Alex Brundage, Jeremy Lawson, Alex Cordell, Austin Wells, Lincoln Campbell, Brandon Vittoria and Daniel Wilson.

In the non-league. Kaufman wants to see his players get game experience. He is looking for the kids who are doing, what we as a coaching staff are teaching them and accomplishing that in a game.

His goal in the non-league is to get up our peak performance level before league starts. Kaufman said, “The non-league is a great opportunity for us to get ready for league.”

According to Kaufman, the number one goal in league is to get all of his players ready for the next level, which would be varsity. He will accomplish this by stressing fundamentals and teaching the basics of the game of baseball.

He said, “Obviously , we want to win games. We’ve been very successful in the past and I want to continue that tradition. We are going to start out taking it one game at a time and hopefully win a league title again this year.”

He sees the strength of his team in the solid defense all the way around.

Kaufman said, After only a few weeks of practice, I am more than confident in the defense right now.”

He sees the challenge as not seeing live pitching up to now. He said, “It will be a little different for the players when they stand in the batter’s box with someone throwing at them for real.”

In closing Kaufman said, “I am really excited. I think we have a pretty good group of guys that we have put together. They have all been working pretty hard up to this point. I am excited to see what happens this year.”

With a new coach and the right attitude, it will be easy to see that the junior varsity Broncs baseball team will be a successful team on the field this season.