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After the Powell Pioneers Legion Baseball Board voted to not renew the contract of manager Joe Cates in August, board members turned their attention to a familiar face: They hired former Pioneer …
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After the Powell Pioneers Legion Baseball Board voted to not renew the contract of manager Joe Cates in August, board members turned their attention to a familiar face: They hired former Pioneer player and manager Jason Borders in October.
Borders has been around the Pioneer program for nearly four decades. He played for the team in the 1980s and spent an initial stint as coach from 1998 until 2001, starting as an assistant coach for one year and then serving as head coach for the other two years.
Borders then took some time off for his family before returning to the team in 2009. He was an assistant coach for three years before becoming the head coach once again for another three years until 2015.
He then decided to head over to Lovell, where he has split duties coaching for the last six years before transitioning back to the Pioneers this year.
“I have known these kids for a while,” Borders said. “It is not like I am being thrown into a situation where I do not know anybody.”
He anticipates this will be a pretty easy move, as he has seen these players move their way up to the top level in recent years, even if as a rival coach.
Borders anticipates the Pioneers will not lose many players this year, with most of the turnover being the seniors they lost this prior year.
“These kids have some varsity experience so it should make it easy,” Borders said. “We are pretty deep pitching-wise.”
With a new season comes the importance of fighting for a title. Borders says he plans to enact a tougher schedule for the team in order to prepare them for the postseason.
Borders intends to add more games, noting that Cody — which has won six of the last eight state championships — plays a tough schedule the whole season. That, he said, allows the Cubs to play at a faster pace at the end of the season.
“When you only play at that speed at the end of the year it kind of catches you off guard,” Borders said.
He plans to schedule games with some more AA teams in the state and play more tournaments to make the Pioneers competitive at districts and state.
Borders is hoping to schedule around 60 games — 20 more than last year. He hopes to kick off the season in April and use the entire summer to get prepared for the state tournament.
“They are a competitive group,” Borders said of the Pioneers players. “[We] just need to have them know they can beat anybody in the state; they are talented.”
Sign ups for the Powell Pioneers 2022 season are today (Tuesday) from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Powell American Legion Post 26, located at 143 S. Clark St.
The team includes players from ages 13-19.
For more information and forms visit www.powellpioneers.com
or contact Cayde O’Brien at 307-578-7677.
