By CHARLIE HUST
The Webster County High School baseball program will begin a new era again next spring with the hiring of former Madisonville-North Hopkins standout John Ashby as the new head coach.
He will replace Zack Traylor who resigned two weeks ago to take a job in Paris, Tennessee.
Ashby graduated from Madisonville-North in 2005 where he played five years for the Maroons, helping them to five straight 7th District titles as a catcher. He signed a scholarship with Oakland City University to continue his baseball career with the Oaks and then later transferred to Transylvania University in Lexington and graduated in 2009 with a degree in Business Administration.
Ashby continued to be involved in baseball, helping coach the Madisonville American Legion team and later returning to his al ma mater as an assistant coach in the Madisonville-North baseball program.
“I’ve always wanted to be a coach, especially a head coach of a program. Webster has had some special baseball team throughout the years and I’m hoping we can take this young squad and by the time they’re seniors can do something special,” he stated. “I want to bring the program back to where it used to be and I’m very excited about the things that are happening at WCHS.”
The new head coach noted that his first goal was to get familiar with current members of the team and also begin to recruit kids that used to play baseball.
“I head of several really good athletes at Webster that for some reason are not playing baseball anymore. I want to try and get them out for the team so they can be a part of the tradition-rich WCHS baseball program again,” he continued. “My goal is to build on the nine wins from last year and get to the .500 mark hopefully this coming season. We can then build on that as our kids get bigger, stronger and older.
Ashby also stated that he intends to implement a conditioning/weight lifting program which should help continue the winning momentum.
“This will be new to some of these younger kids but we have to get stronger if we’re going to compete in the district and region that we play,” Ashby concluded.
Webster Athletic Director Matt Bell was thrilled with the hire.
“WCHS is excited about what Coach Ashby will bring to the baseball program,” noted athletic director Matt Bell. “He will inherit a team that finished 9-22 last season with only one graduate.”
Ashby, who is employed at General Electric in Madisonville, will also serve as an assistant coach for the WCHS Lady Trojan basketball program under former teammate Parker McCalister.