Henry Sibley Baseball Team Hopes To Grow Up Quickly

HENRY SIBLEY WARRIORS BASEBALL 

Last season: 9-12

Conference record: 6-10 (tied for sixth place in Classic Suburban Conference) 

Section 3AAA tournament: lost to Lakeville South 4-1

The Henry Sibley baseball team may have more questions than answers this year under 16-year head coach Greg Fehrman. The Warriors return just two starters and will rely heavily on new faces and inexperienced players in the competitive Classic Suburban Conference.

Fehrman said that his team is going into the season with high expectations, despite their youth and limited practice time, due to the Minnesota winter.

“I think at this time what every team does is they set out on the idea that they are going ahead and be something special and win the conference, win the section and eventually win the state tournament,” said Fehrman. “That is how we practice and what our thoughts are, until they are changed.”

Fehrman said he feels that the Warriors must replace some veteran players lost to graduation.

“We lost Jake McHenry,” said Fehrman. “He was a catcher and a four-year starter for us. We lost our shortstop, who is playing college ball right now. We lost our centerfielder (Jimmy Ryan), our number one pitcher (Drew Shows), our first baseman Will Marks, our second baseman Ross Larson and Kevin Murphy, another pitcher/outfielder, so we lost six or seven kids.”

Key returning players

Fehrman said that the Warriors will rely heavily on their senior class to guide his young team.

We have four seniors that are going to be coming back,” said Fehrman. “We are going to be really young this year. Our four seniors are Ryan Tessmer, Tyler Pease, Brett Ward and Mike Mansur. Ward got hurt halfway through the season last year. He is a pitcher/outfielder. Pease got hurt the first game of the year and was out the whole year with a broken collarbone. Tessmer was our number two or three pitcher and Mansur was a transfer student who was ineligible the whole year. It is hard to say how that whole thing is going to play itself out.”

Fehrman feels the Warriors have some questions, but good potential among their hurlers.  

“We have a number of kids who are pitching,” said Fehrman. “We have some arms down there. We are just not quite sure 1, 2 or 3, what number they are. We are going to have to figure that out as we go along. Everybody looks pretty good in the gym, but once you get outside, it is a whole different story.”

Fehrman thinks his team has the ability to be a good-hitting squad.

“We scrimmaged the other day at Rosemount and put the ball in play a little bit, but that is inside the Dome and when you get outside, you just don’t know,” said Fehrman. “When you are young like that, you’ve got a lot of kids that haven’t seen that kind of pitching before, so you don’t know how they are going to relate and what adjustments they are going to make. My sense is that we are going to be a better team as we go along. I think that we are going to grow and just get better at playing the game, because we are so young.”

Conference outlook

The Classic Suburban Conference 2010 champion was St. Thomas Academy with a 15-1 mark in conference play, three games ahead of second place Hill-Murray. Fehrman expects those same top teams to battle for the title.

“I think Hill-Murray will be good,” said Fehrman. “I think North St. Paul will be good. I think St. Thomas will be good. Those are the teams that, right off the top of my head, should be fairly competitive.”

Fehrman believes that there is plenty of individual talent in the conference

“South St. Paul has a really good catcher,” said Fehrman. “Hill has a couple of pitchers, a senior (Robert Youngdahl) and a sophomore (Luc Henke). St. Thomas has some good players that are coming back.”