by David Stodulski
Former JV baseball coach Ryan Devlin filled the varsity baseball coaching position this season.
Coach Devlin led the JV team to a 9-10 season in 2009.
Now 90 percent of his varsity team is athletes he coached in JV. He said that he is glad that it worked out this way because he had a good relationship with the parents, players and baseball community when he coached two years ago.
“I am very grateful for the opportunity to rejoin Varina baseball,” Coach Devlin said.
He wants to strengthen the team’s camaraderie through positive encouragement.
“I feel that I am getting the boys to have fun and look forward to coming to practice and the games,” Coach Devlin said.
The first week with the varsity, Coach Devlin had his metal shop students help to fix the netting on the L screen for the batting cage and repair the tires on all the portable screens and backstops.
The players helped to clean the field on a Saturday, weed whacking and hanging up the windscreens on the fences.
Junior third basemen and pitcher Ben Robins said Coach Devlin, who likes to be on top of everything he does, came at a good time.
Ben believes the program is turning around and the Blue Devils are coming together as a team.
“Even though our record doesn’t show that we can play, I think we can play,” Ben said. “We have talent. We just got to work hard and put it all together. Coaches can only do so much.”
Senior pitcher Jarrett Poh played on JV in 2009. He said Coach Devlin did a great job then.
“I like Coach Devlin stepping up to the plate,” Jarrett said.
Jarrett said that Coach Devlin is cool on and off of the field, and he thinks that this will be good for the team.
“My mission being interim head baseball coach is to make this experience for the boys have impact so they can look back and have fond memories of their experience,” Coach Devlin said.
Recent Comments