South Side Baseball Welcomes New Coach as It Looks Toward Future Success

By Alice Kauffman (9)
alice.kauffman@fwcsstudents.org

February 24, 2023

While Major League Baseball teams gear up for a new season, South Side is following along, but turning over a new leaf with a new head coach. Recently potential baseball players have begun attending conditioning to enhance their skills before the games begin.

As of 2021, the baseball team gained a new head coach. Beforehand, their coach was Sheldon Van Pelt, coaching from 2014 to 2021. Their new coach is Will Coursen-Carr. Coursen-Carr is a South Side Alumni, a fellow Archer. He attended IU University for college and has an impressive reputation.

Coursen-Carr won Indiana’s Mr. Baseball award for 2012, which means he was voted the best high school player in the state. He went on to pitch at Indiana University, pitching 65 innings during his freshman year. That same year, he contributed to the team qualifying for the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska for the first time in school history.

Last year, the Archer’s Baseball Team had to memorable games where they won against Manchester, and Central Noble. During the baseball State Tournament, they worked hard despite a loss to Wayne High School. This year, there’s high hopes for the team, with a new set of leaders, and some new players getting ready! 

“It’s a great chance to get outside, enjoy some fresh air. Run around and enjoy the pastime! You don’t need to be a super athlete, you just need to practice hand eye coordination and you’ll do great,” says Coursen-Carr, with lots of enthusiasm.

“We start off by running in Gym 2, to the auditorium entrance. We do stretches, more running, and practicing catch," said Cameron Thompson (12). Warmups really come in handy to prepare you for the season.

 “We do hitting exercises in the cages, and soft tossing. We practice hitting ground balls and short hops. We practice pop flies too.” 

Sessions run from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm, a good chunk of time to be working. Mondays and Thursdays are the key times that they meet. 

“It prepares me by improving my fundamentals. The more you practice baseball fundamentals, the better player you become,” said Thompson. Not everyone who plans to be on the team attends conditioning, but several team members have recommended it. It’s a great way to form team bonding, so that chemistry between the players is immaculate. As well as this, it also gets your body ready for constant movement during games and practices.

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