One thing all high school coaches must deal with is losing players to graduation. Each year new players come in as the experienced players move on.

This year is no different for several area schools. For example, Warsaw Community High School will be without Steve Siebenmorgen, Craig Lankford, Jon Walmer and Zach Nelson. Siebenmorgen, a 3-1/2 year starter at the catcher position earned all-state and all-NLC honors last year. Lankford, a left-handed pitcher, was a four-year starter. Walmer was Warsaw's starting shortstop.

"They were our key losses," said Warsaw coach Will Shepherd. "When you have big guys like Siebenmorgen and Nelson, you expect to see hits in the gaps and an occasional home run. With the guys we have this year, it will be a bit different. The guys have aggressive swings and they are effective offensively, but we will really be focusing on defense."

But Warsaw is not the only squad that will miss some familiar faces in the field this spring. Tippecanoe Valley saw three seniors from last year, Derek Eby, Matt Shilling and Dax Snyder, graduate.

Whitko saw James Miller, Justin Juillerat, Brandon Waller and Jimmy Baumgartner graduate, and Wawasee will be without Drew Gradle, R.J. Wilson, Brian Milligan and Ronnie Black.

NorthWood will face opponents without its two top hurlers, Jesse Hoover and Nate Brown, as well as shortstop Brock Doty and slugger Matt Sitek.

"Losing Hoover and Brown takes away 140 to 200 innings of our pitching from last year," said NorthWood coach Doug Gerber. "We need to develop solid pitching because we don't have the one-two punch we had last year."

However, while many area teams saw several talented players graduate, several strong players return as well.

Whitko will look to Josh Hoffman, Anthony Clausen, Jason Ewell, Gabe Langohr, Alan Robbins, Wes Kellogg and Alex Frantz to improve its 10-15 record from last year.

Wawasee is hoping Brent Doty, Brian Adkins, Danny Milligan and Dustin Sumpter can up the 10-17 mark from last year.

NorthWood will rely on Josh Snyder, Anthony Sanders, Carl Flickinger, Brandon Culp, Eric Flickinger, Ryan Flickinger, Jesse Fink and Rory Clouse to help the Panthers better last season's 16-13 record.

Warsaw will look to Adam Augustine, Michael Barger, Brooks Stogsdill and John Milton to lead a young squad this season.

However, Tippecanoe Valley has a core of returning players who expect to up last season's 10-17 mark this year. Wes Backus, B.J. Cunningham, Drew Deardorff, Richie Swanson, Caleb Shewman, Kevin Day, Derek Sausaman, Phil Jackson, Chris Mitterling, Jeremiah Haney and Mike Schwenk are looking to put Valley back on the baseball map.

"We have our whole pitching staff back," said Valley coach Scott Backus. "And we have our whole infield back. That means we should improve from last year if we can get the guys convinced of that.

"So far, practice is much more intense than last year so we are really looking to improve from last year. The weather has not cooperated so far, but practices have been more intense."

Wawasee, which opened the season with a 9-1 win over Bethany Christian, will face Manchester tonight at 4:30 p.m., while NorthWood hosts Jimtown at 4:30 p.m. as well.

Manchester graduated nine talented players from last year's 15-11 team that went 6-1 in the Three Rivers Conference. Included in that class is Marc Roth, a member of the North All-Star team. Jon Gratz and Klint Rupley are the lone seniors for the 2001 Squires. Gratz batted .478 a year ago with four home runs and 29 RBIs. Rupley had 13 RBIs and batted .298.

Roth hit .362 with nine homers and 29 RBIs. Other key losses include Josh Bradley (.308, 19 RBIs), Brady Burgess (.339, 17 RBIs), Kedric Miller (5-2, .327 ERA) and Kory Rupley (.457, 23 RBIs).

Whitko plays Fort Wayne South Side tonight in Fort Wayne. Valley opens the season at Pioneer Monday. Triton plays at Oregon-Davs and Warsaw hosts South Bend St. Joseph Wednesday. [[In-content Ad]]