Head Coach Kevin Stangel is leading his 2023 Manitowoc American Legion varsity baseball team through a mostly road schedule this season.
After winning the program’s first-ever Wisconsin Triple-A State championship last summer, Legion Post 88 returned just 4 players from that squad.
Stangel tells Seehafer News the team is comprised of players from 5 area high school programs: Manitowoc Lincoln, Roncalli, Two Rivers, Kiel and Brillion.
“Every year’s a little bit different. It’s a different mix of kids, different schools represented each year, so sometimes it takes a little time,” he explained. “This year, we kind of had to hit the ground running with Kiel having a good high school season, advancing to the State tournament. They kind of joined us very quickly and assimilated very well. But, yknow it’s always different each year. The bottom line is if you have kids that love to play baseball and kids that are competitive usually it works pretty easily”
We asked if it is difficult to mesh a group of starting-caliber athletes.
He said that they have that conversation right away at the start of the season, “to make sure everyone understands that I know in the spring everybody was a starter, everybody played a vast majority of innings on their respective high school teams. But now they gotta kind of take a step back and they’re probably not playing as much as they would like or maybe in positions that they’re accustomed to. It’s a little bit of an adjustment in their mindset but usually, there’s a few exceptions over the year, kids understand and they can see what’s around them and they adjust.”
Stangel also noted, “It’s always nice, especially for our parents, to have a game locally and for the kids to have some local support…The schedule’s a little bit more road intensive than it typically would be.”
And, having been involved in Legion baseball as both a player and now a coach, Kevin is well aware of its mission since first being established in 1976.
“A lot of character development that goes a long way, making sure that we’re doing things appropriately: teamwork, discipline, displaying good sportsmanship,” he said. “We try and give back to the kids too, we have a scholarship program. And I guess in today’s youth sports society we also try to make sure that we’re providing a cost-effective team-based approach to baseball.”
Stangel also says Manitowoc is hosting a Regional Tournament later this month on July 18th through the 22nd.
