Former Lion leads Sam Houston offense to success with conference realignment and new challenges | News, Sports, Jobs

photo by: AP Photo/Matthieu Hinton

Sam Houston utilityman Justin Wishkoski (5) celebrates a home run with Sam Houston utilityman Clayton Chadwick (12) and Sam Houston utilityman Tyler Davis (18) during an NCAA baseball game against Oregon State on Friday, June 2, 2023, in Baton Rouge, La.

Conference realignment has affected almost every NCAA Division I school in one way or another. But the Sam Houston Bearkats have faced an accelerating turnover rate. The team spent over 30 years in the Southland Conference before moving to the Western Athletic Conference for two years. This season, the Bearkats moved to Conference USA again.

“It’s been a journey,” Sam Houston assistant baseball coach Shane Wedd said. “The seniors are playing their third conference. »

Through it all, the Sam Houston baseball team has remained consistent, especially in its offense — and that’s largely a result of Wedd, a Lawrence High School and University of Kansas alumnus.

The former Chesty Lion and Jayhawk has a long history of being involved in the sport, thanks to his childhood in Lawrence. Whether it was around his father Dirk Wedd, current Free State coach Mike Hill or Brad Stoll, Wedd spent a lot of time with different baseball minds from a young age, which helped him achieve his peak as a coach and player. A few years before he attended KU, the Jayhawks made their only College World Series appearance in school history in 1993.

Wedd then started at Sam Houston in 2015-16 as a volunteer assistant before taking over as head coach at Northeast Texas Community College for a year. Wedd returned to Sam Houston in a volunteer assistant role in 2018 before becoming director of baseball operations in 2019 and associate head coach from 2020 to present.

This season was his first as associate head coach responsible for leading the team’s offense. The Bearkats’ offense has had a lot of individual and team success with Wedd, although he says the results are due to the bats the team brings in recruiting.

Bearkat’s third hitter in four years became a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award. Walker Janek, a catcher from Portland, Texas, led the team with a .368 batting average, 58 RBIs, 17 home runs and 81 hits. He is currently listed as the No. 23 prospect in the 2024 MLB Draft by MLB Pipeline. A few years ago, Colton Cowser – another Golden Spikes Award semifinalist – went fifth overall in the 2021 MLB Draft to the Baltimore Orioles. The third semifinalist was Carlos Contreras in 2022, after a season in which he hit .415 with 90 hits and 89 RBIs.

photo by: AP Photo/Aaron M. Sprecher

Colton Cowser (17) runs the bases during a Lamar University at Sam Houston State University NCAA college baseball game on Saturday, April 6, 2019, in Huntsville, Texas.

photo by: AP Photo/Michael Wyke

Sam Houston State outfielder Carlos Contreras during an NCAA baseball game against New Mexico State on Friday, April 2, 2023, in Huntsville, Texas.

photo by: AP Photo/Matthieu Hinton

Sam Houston utilityman Walker Janek (3) runs during an NCAA baseball game Friday, June 2, 2023 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The college baseball scene has seen dramatic changes in recent years. College pitchers have gotten better and faster. Wedd said it brought the hitting community together to “find a solution.” For the Bearkats, it’s been about efficiency in the swing. However, it’s something they don’t spend a lot of time training. Instead, this is what they focus on when recruiting.

“We don’t want to change (their swing) too much,” Wedd said. “We’re trying to put them in position with an approach (at the plate) to be successful.”

The Bearkats are also an experienced team. With the explosion of the transfer portal, programs in Power Five conferences are primarily comprised of older players, many of whom are transfers from Mid-Major conferences. Teams like Sam Houston have to rely on their youth to play early, which can be key to the development of players like Cowser, Contreras and Janek.

“We pride ourselves on being a place where guys can develop,” Wedd said. “Our niche is to take the high school student and develop him. And the best way to develop is to play games and be on the field. We were able to recruit guys as freshmen.

The trio of semifinalists — Cowser, Contreras and Janek — were all consistent contributors as freshmen, and the same goes for the team’s other leaders in recent years. Wedd said the team as a whole has a strong group of hard workers who are open to coaching. Having these special hitters also put the program on the map.

Sam Houston’s 2023 baseball season was, offensively, the best the school has ever had. In their second year in the WAC, the Bearkats set school records in hits, home runs, doubles and runs scored. Although the team did not have a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, teammates Tyler Davis (107 hits) and Joe Redfield (100 hits) became the first Sam Houston duo to eclipse three-point hits figures during the same season. The only other program in the country last year to have two 100-hit hitters was national champion LSU with eventual second overall picks Dylan Crews and Tommy White.

Last year it was a different team with an alternative offensive approach. The Bearkats focused on scoring via stolen bases and strong execution. Even with fewer home runs, the Bearkats still managed to win 34 games and compete in a competitive baseball conference within C-USA. It was the 13th season since 2010 that the team won at least 30 games, with the only season without reaching this mark being 2020, when the season was canceled after 14 games.

There’s a lot to like about the Bearkats moving forward. Rejuvenated by the new conference alignment, the team has a chance to compete more in the playoffs than in previous seasons as part of the Southland Conference. C-USA received two NCAA Tournament bids: one for Dallas Baptist University, winner of the conference tournament, and one for Louisiana Tech, the team with the best regular season record in the conference. Wedd said both schools likely would have earned at-large bids if a third team had won the conference tournament.

“We had a lot of success in the Southland Conference for a long time, and we knew our opponents and had a good idea of ​​how to win this league,” Wedd said. “The WAC was a little different in a whole different geographic part of the country (with) a different game. We are now in a conference where there are teams with very good resources and facilities. It’s been fun to progress a little bit and be on top of our game all the time.

Turnover, change and irregularity are hallmarks of the modern college game, and the Bearkats have seen it all. However, the team is successfully adapting to new styles and levels of play. Regardless of the latest wrinkle, the Lawrence native helps lead the team to a bright future, regardless of conference or roster.