Jeff Lockhart new Wildcats' skipper

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Veteran player Jeff Lockhart has agreed to take the head coaching reins of the Kentville Wildcats senior baseball club.

The Wildcats had been without a head coach since Chris Salsman resigned at the end of the 2007 season. Salsman, who has accepted an assistant coaching position with the Nova Scotia Youth Selects, will continue to serve as the Wildcats’ club president.

Lockhart, a veteran of more than 10 seasons with the ’Cats, is a novice coach, at least at the senior level. “I did some coaching when I was in university (at Acadia),” he says, “and I’ve also coached minor ball as well as minor hockey.”

He said coaching “is something I’ve always been interested in doing someday, maybe when my kids were older. I didn’t honestly expect I’d be doing it this soon, but the team was in a pinch so I agreed to step in.”

Lockhart confirmed he still plans on playing a bit, so the Wildcats will likely end up “coaching by committee” this season. “Curtis (Falls) has agreed to help out, KD (Kevin Daurie) will have an influence and I expect Ian Mosher to be part of the mix.

“It’s kind of a neat challenge,” he said, and not without precedent. He recalls, “when Jim Mosher (Kentville head coach from 1999-2004) started out, he hadn’t coached at the senior level either.” Neither, for that matter, had Salsman.

Lockhart doesn’t anticipate too much trouble on the field – not with veteran leadership like Falls, Daurie and Mosher to assist him.

Needs younger talent

“The biggest challenge will be behind the scenes – who’s pitching, who’s in relief, things like that – and, of course, all the things that need to happen before you even get to the park. I plan to try and share things around, which should make it easier on everybody.”

One goal for Lockhart and his coaching ‘committee’ will be to attract some younger players, both to fill holes in the line-up and to provide valuable bench strength.

“Our lack of pitching depth hurt us at the end of last year,” he said. “We need to work at getting more younger players out from the local area.”

Otherwise, most of last year’s roster is planning to return, other than Mike King, who has retired both as a player and as club president.

Falls, who travels from his home in Yarmouth – just as Jeff Lockhart’s home is in the Halifax area – “will be full-time until July, when his wife is due to have a baby, and hopes to be able to play the whole season.”

Ryan Brothers hopes to be available by mid-season after fulfilling school commitments that will take him out of the country.

As for new players, Lockhart could confirm that Brad Steadman, who played the past several seasons in Hantsport, plans to play senior in Kentville this summer.

Lockhart said many of the Kentville veterans are returning “for another kick at the can, mostly because Dartmouth is hosting nationals in 2009. That means two teams get to go from our league and all of us feel there’s no reason one of them can’t be Kentville.”

The Wildcats have reached the NSSBL finals each of the last two seasons, and the fact they lost to Dartmouth both times is added incentive.

The ’Cats have not begun pre-season workouts as a team, but Lockhart expected indoor training would begin shortly, likely at EMS, where Wildcat Luke Smith teaches phys ed. As well, “there will be open tryouts for any local players interested in trying out.”