By Luke Schultheis, Layout and Sports Editor

Former La Roche baseball coach Chase Rowe resigned after leading the Redhawks to the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championship last season.

The team has been without a coach since summer 2021.

According to Nathan Stutz, one of the team’s catchers, Rowe wanted to spend more time with his family and run a travel ball team called the Pittsburgh Spikes. LRU’s assistant coach, Sean Lubin, also left the team to focus on the Spikes.

As of October 2021, the team remains without an official coach. However, Stutz said they are inching closer, and athletic director Jim Tinkey has someone lined up. The new head coach should be revealed in mid-October.

The team has been practicing without a coach since Rowe and Lubin departed last summer. “We just go up to the field by ourselves,” Stutz said. “We don’t really have much stuff up there. Some of the kids hit IO—infield/outfield to the other kids, and we throw, and we just try to get better with what we have.”

Stutz answered a few questions regarding the impact of no coaches on the team.

Q: If by some chance you didn’t find a coach, would the program still go on? Would you guys be without a coach, or would the program not be able to function?

A: I really don’t know the answer to that question. I don’t know if they would let us run the team ourselves, or if they would completely shut down the program. Or the athletic director might take over. I think he played there, and he also coached for a little bit before Chase.

Q: I tried to contact Jim Tinkey, but I didn’t hear anything from him.

A: Yeah. He hasn’t told the baseball players much of anything. The whole process with the new head coach—I really have no information.

Q: Would you say the team is less organized without a coach, or have you guys kind of adapted to it?

A: It is definitely less organized. Not everyone goes up to the field. It’s kind of scattered throughout the day, and people have classes and stuff like that. We don’t really have any set plans or anything. When we have practices, we pretty much just go by ourselves.

The team went 20-3 last season, hitting 213 runs and finishing with a whopping batting average of .345. Two of their losses didn’t come until the championship series, where they fell to Penn State Behrend, 6-4 and 7-5 respectively. The Redhawks said they hope to continue their success with or without a coach in 2022.