The Becker Bulldog boys baseball team is under new management as Tyler Niedfeldt takes the reins following Chuck Stanger’s resignation last year. Niedfeldt has been coaching baseball at Becker for six years at lower levels. His vast experience includes playing baseball in high school in which he had multiple offers to continue playing at the minor league level before eventually choosing an education and playing college football.
Niedfeldt is bringing back long-time assistant coach Steve Hill and has retained or added Jason Pfingsten, Todd Bestgen and Tom Wenner to the program.
“Pfingsten is a guy I am very excited to add to our staff as a varsity volunteer,” said Niedfeldt. “He is a former Becker Bulldog with a great baseball background. He played collegiately for Mankato State where he did very well.”
Niedfeldt says he has given Pfingsten the title of pitching coach even though he will be used for more than just helping the pitchers.
The head coach has named senior Andrew Berglund and junior Matthew Krenz as his early-season captains. Niedfeldt said he may opt to name another captain once the season kicks off just to give his players another veteran to follow.
Niedfeldt said picking the captains is not always an easy thing and he and his staff are always on the lookout for players who come across as great leaders.
“We ask our players to be positive and first class,” he said. “We also look at a player’s character. To me, character is what a person does when no one is watching. Does the person put himself in a negative situation? We want our captains to be held at a higher standard than our team.”
Niedfeldt has 11 seniors, 10 juniors, 10 sophomores and 18 freshmen on the 9-12th grade teams. For the 7-8th grade teams, he has 41 total players playing America’s pastime.
Even though it’s his first year steering the ship, Niedfeldt feels this team can compete with some of the better teams in the conference and sections.
“I believe we will finish in the top half of the conference and be competitive in every game, “ he said. “We are in a good baseball conference with the likes of Cathedral, Little Falls and Albany — always putting out good teams. Foley should be pretty good this year as well.”
Niedfeldt says he looks at the 2017 season as an opportunity for his team to win every game on any night.
“Our team is old with the number of seniors we have, but young with lack of varsity experience,” he said. The learning curve will be steep and we have the challenge of getting our guys ready.”
Sometimes with a change in coaching, the players don’t know what to expect from the coach and he coach doesn’t know what to expect from the players. That won’t be the case with Niedfeldt and his squad.
“I am very familiar with all of the varsity guys in the program and I feel comfortable with almost every guy 9-12,” he said. “Teaching PE in the middle and high school and coaching varsity football has given me the unique experience of teaching or coaching most of the guys before baseball.”
Niedfeldt says he is loving the game and is teaching so many things, athletically and personally.
“I want these young men to leave our program with the values and experiences that will allow them become great men, husbands, fathers and human beings well beyond their high school years.”
The boys played their first game of the year at Sauk Rapids-Rice (loss) and hosted St. Cloud Cathedral Thursday on their home turf.
