After a 37-year hiatus, Rams baseball will return to Winston-Salem State Spring 2011.
The team, which has been defunct since 1973, is being resurrected to fulfill CIAA requirements.
The WSSU Athletics Department. hired Kevin Ritsche as interim, part-time head coach. The News Argus interviewed Coach Ritsche Jan. 17 and discuss the squad’s return to CIAA baseball, where they will play their home games, and what he expects from the newly formulated team their first season back on the field.
News Argus: Where are you from originally?
Coach Ritsche: I’m originally a Superior, Wisconsin native.
News Argus: Where did you transfer from ?
Coach Ritsche: Alaska, but I’ve been teaching exercise science here [WSSU] since 2005.
News Argus: How many players are you carrying on your squad?
Coach Ritsche: We’re carrying 24 players.
News Argus: How difficult was it to bring together 24 players to a team that is essentially brand new and make it all work?
Coach Ritsche: We went live July 1, 2010, and it gave me approximately a month and a half to find players that wanted to play college baseball. Luckily, North Carolina is one of those parts of the country where there’s a lot of good amateur baseball. I didn’t have to go far to find guys who wanted to play at that level. If you look at our roster, the majority of our guys are local kids; we only have two or three guys that are out-of-staters.
News Argus: Are there any standout players?
Coach Ritsche: Most definitely. We have Wesley Edwards. He’s a pitcher from Rochester, NY. He’s probably going to be one of our top two in the rotation. He’s a superb athlete, one of the best athletes we have on the team; he has the ability to play at the next level. We have a catcher; he’s a local kid, named Michael Robbins. He’s one of my team captains.
News Argus: One of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind is where the team will play home games. Can you give us any insight?
Coach Ritsche: We’ve spoken with several different venues to play our home games [at their facility]. Finch Field in High Point, at Price Field in High Point; of course, everybody knows we’ve spoken with the [Winston-Salem] Dash. Those negotiations are still in the works; hopefully we will come to an agreement on both sides in the next couple weeks. As far as my concern goes as a coach, and as far as my players are concerned, we really don’t care where we play. Anywhere you go the bases are going to be 90 feet apart, and the mound is going to be 60 feet, six inches from the back of the plate. We’re looking forward to just going out and playing baseball, no matter where it is.
News Argus: As a unit, aside from a winning season, what would you like to establish this year returning to the CIAA?
Coach Ritsche: First of all, we need to do things right. In order to do that, we’ve got to start out on the right foot. We have to build a foundation as well as a philosophy about team chemistry, expecting to win, winning with class, loyalty to your teammates and to your school, heighten team awareness, and putting your teammates and your school first; those are the values that I want to instill in these kids that will carry on season to season. That’s really what we we’re looking to build on besides just a win-loss record. Because really, how can you build a program where everyone that comes in they knows what the program’s about?