Thirty-one years!

Big Lake baseball coach Loren Holthaus is entering his 31st season in the Big Lake baseball program and first year at the helm of the ship he hopes to guide to huge success.

Holthaus has a keen baseball mind after being an assistant for all those years as well as playing high school and amateur baseball for over 25 years. He is currently the amatuer baseball coach for the Lake Cafe Lakers of Big Lake.

With his new team leadership role, Holthaus will be grooming and molding the skills and talents of 35 kids in grades 9-12. He has 11 seniors on the squad, but one of his biggest goals is to try and improve the number of turnouts moving forward.

“It is very difficult to keep the participation up,” he said. “Kids have so many choices for spring sports.  I have to keep it fun so they continue to play ball”

Speaking of fun, that’s exactly what Holthaus and his coaching staff want to emphasize, including his three fenceposts for enjoying the sport he so loves.

“I tell the students three things — one, have fun. Two, get better everyday and three, win! If you do one and two, then three will automatically happen.”

Holthaus’ assistant coaches this year are Tony Trudeau (assistant varsity), Ryan Prom (JV), Tyler Halverson (ninth grade) and John Cusick (pitching coach). The team’s student managers are: Claire Peterson and Kaity Cusik.

“I am fortunate to have a great class of seniors,” Holthaus said.  “Will Boeckman, Josh Hunt and Samson Schlegel will be my captains.  Zach Robeck, and Mitchell Spanier will also be major contributors to our team.”

Monticello is expected to be Big Lake’s biggest rival.

“Year after year they put out good teams,” he said.  “They are well coached.”

Holthaus says many of his players are a little rusty after missing out in last year’s season. His team plans to follow the MSHSL guidelines in regards to the coronavirus protocals and hopes it doesn’t become a distraction or bother for his team.

The Hornets hosted their first game of the year Friday against Sauk Rapids-Rice. A full report on the game will appear in next week’s Patriot.