Baseball preview: Former Warrior Dan Essman takes over rebuilding WFC

With Todd “Bubs” Hoffman’s retirement from coaching, the Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell baseball team has a new skipper for 2022.

That new head coach, however, is a familiar face.

Dan Essman – a 2005 Woodland graduate and former Warriors baseball player and lower-level coach – takes over a WFC program that finished last season with only one win but has some experienced returning players and a positive vibe with its season scheduled to start Wednesday with a visit to crosstown rival Streator.

“[Being forced to practice inside because of lingering winter weather] doesn’t help, but we have been doing a lot of skill work, which as a whole we need [and] I feel like the kids are eager to improve a lot from the year before,” Essman said.

“[Taking over the program] actually is surreal. I would have never thought I would be working at a place I used to go to school, let alone be a head coach at the varsity level for a sport. I’m very excited to see how much we can improve from the beginning of the season to the end being a new head coach and having [assistant coach Stash Mroczek, a Streator High School graduate and baseball standout] be on the same page as I am.”

The Warriors return nine of last season’s regulars, led by seven upperclassmen: senior 1B/P Carl Sass, senior 2B Keegan Boldt, senior C William Weber and juniors OF/P Ethan Schumm, C Dane Osterdock, OF/P Mason Sterling and SS/P Carter Ewing, the last of whom earned honorable mention to The Times 2021 All-Area Baseball Team. OF/1B Jonathon Heidenreich, now a sophomore, also earned multiple starts during last year’s COVID-19-delayed season.

This year’s roster also brings back a trio of other sophomores who made varsity contributions, namely 2B/P Tucker Hill, OF/2B Dylan Jenkins and OF Dylan Denham. Joining the team are senior OF Dan Miramontes and a promising freshman group that includes OF/P Theron Essman, OF Clayton Shaver, 1B/OF Nick Plesko, C/OF Quintin Porter, 3B/SS Connor Dodge and OF Sam Schmitts.

“I told the kids this year every position is open, everyone has a chance to play, whether it is a freshman all the way up to a senior,” Dan Essman said. “I have an inclination of where some kids will play, but without being able to get on that baseball field more and do some live situational drills, it’s a toss-up as to who will play where.

“Everyone is showing me it should be them [on the varsity roster and in the lineup], which is great to see.”

Having good arms to send to the mound – and more than a few of them – has become vital to high school baseball success. The Warriors bring back last year’s one-two punch of Sass and Schumm. Ewing and Sterling also saw meaningful innings on the mound in 2021 and should again in 2022, with Coach Essman hoping they will be backed by underclassmen such as Hill, Jenkins, Theron Essman and Dodge.

“I’m hoping they are ready to pitch at the varsity level,” he said, “because four [pitchers] is good to have, but more is better.”

WFC’s new coach is setting high goals, hoping to contend for the program’s first .500 or better season since 2011′s sectional championship team went 19-10.

“One goal I set for myself and the players is to be around .500 as a ball club ...” Dan Essman said. “The way to reach it is determination, the will to win. The will to want to be better, to believe in what we as coaches are teaching them and taking that to the field.

“If everyone buys into what we are trying to do, it will help more than they think.”