STAC BASEBALL: NEW COACH LOOKS TO MAKE OWEGO COMPETITIVE AGAIN (12 PHOTOS) (2019-03-18)  BY TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports ReportOWEGO - Good news, bad news. The bad news is the Owego baseball team graduated eight seniors off last year's 18-player roster. The good news is that team had nine juniors. So, although graduation losses were heavy, the returning roster is deep as well. And the Indians' only underclassman was Nate Bennett, a sophomore on the 2018 team.
"The experience is pretty good," said new head coach Ryan Smith, who comes to the program from the coaching staff at Deposit / Hancock, which won the Class D state championship in 2018. "We have a lot of seniors that have been at the varsity level for two or three years.
"I'm all about working with young guys too. I'm going to move two guys up that should be on JV, but the faster I get to coach them, the faster they're going to become better baseball players. The better the competition, the better they're going to get."
Smith is ready to take on the challenge.
"We've got around 17 guys," he said. "I might move some guys down to JV, but being my first year I don't want to cut anyone. I think it's good for the kids to all be out for baseball, so I decided to leave a lot of them. And at the end of the day you always have options."
The players should be able to relate well to Smith, one of the youngest head coaches around. He played his high school ball at Hancock, graduating in 2014. Hancock played in the state championship game his junior and senior years and also made the state tournament in 2011 and 2012.
"I've been around baseball," he said. "I played at SUNY Cortland. High school, we always competed, so I know what it takes to be at the next level, playoffs.
"Right now, it's all inexperience. Our best baseball should be the beginning of May, so that's what I tell my guys. Work hard now. Once it becomes May, it's your time to shine."
Smith also knows there is a lot of work to be done if he hopes to turn around a program which hasn't had a winning season since 2015.
"The biggest challenge is they've struggled the last few years, so I'm just trying to get in there and change some things up," he said. "At the end of he day, it's all about believing in yourself, being positive and working hard every day."
The coach hopes to have this team competing for spots in the starting line-up, which should kindle that competitive fire when the Indians face STAC foes like Horseheads and U-E, which won Section IV championships at the Class AA and A levels, respectively, in 2018.
"We talk a lot about competing," he said. "We want to compete against each other, earn our spots."
Owego's first game is March 29 at Cortland at 4:15 p.m.
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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
          
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