Baseball season is officially here and all of the high school spring athletes are in the middle of tryouts week while simultaneously preparing for real games to start. For Miramonte Baseball, that means a scrimmage against Alhambra on Saturday to see how everyone competes before deciding final rosters for Varsity, JV and Freshman.

Sean Hennessy is starting a new chapter for Miramonte, taking over this year with hopes of developing a strong program year after year. He’s currently the Chair of the physical education department on campus, and previously coached at Las Lomas High for several years.

The biggest priority for the program is to get back to establishing a winning culture that was previously set for over 2 decades by Vince Dell’Aquila. With a large group of players in the program, Sean is eager to do just that. But first, he needs to sort through the huge contingent of upperclassmen and decide on who has the best chance to help the Varsity team win ballgames this year.

Of of the toughest things for a new coach is to learn and evaluate all of the players in the program, but Sean has a great head start on that, as he’s attended several games in prior years and also sees most of the players on campus and in the weight room - so there is a natural familiarity.

What I respect about Sean is that he understands that building a program is more about developing players over their 4 years in high school than it is putting all of your eggs in one basket at the Varsity level and disregarding the younger players - of which many will inevitably will become varsity players down the road. That doesn’t mean that Varsity isn’t the priority, because it always will be, but keeping continuity in the program and emphasizing development with younger players is still very important.

I’m looking forward to watching the Matadors this season - and there will hopefully be some great matchups with Campo and Acalanes!