Curry named new baseball coach for Eagles

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Dave Curry, who for the past 21 years has been an assistant baseball coach to Jim Senske at New Ulm High School, was named the new head baseball coach Wednesday night at New Ulm High School.,

Curry replaces Senske who resigned after 40 years at th helm. Senske amassed a Minnesota state record of 707 wins in that time.

"It is pretty exciting," Curry said. "This is probably one of the most exciting things that has happened to me in coaching in the 26 years that I have been involved in athletics."

Curry knows that he is following a legend in Senske. "No one can replace Jim -- I don't expect to do that. We just hope to do the best we can and continue on with the tradition that has been started."

Senske was known as an intense coach which Curry says was Jim's style. "I will be Dave Curry -- no one can be like Jim. We talked about that over the years that Jim's style is one that is reknowned. I don't think that anyone can be like Jim. I certainly can't. But I am sure that I will be more intense than I was as an assistant but I also have to be myself."

He added that his philosophy will be to play New Ulm baseball. "Whether it was when I was coaching youth baseball over the years we still play that same style. We do a lot of bunting, we play good defense. We force the other team into situations that they do not want to be in...we will continue to use the New Ulm style of baseball that has been successful over the years."

Curry said that he has not named an assistant yet. "It will be either Dave Kunz or Jim Schwartz, who have been in the system for years," he said.

"In some ways people feel that this job is a pressure situatiuon," Curry said. "We have established over the years a tradition. But in some ways, it is not a difficult job because the New Ulm kids know that baseball is important to them. We have been winning and been successful in the past. No one wants to let the community down."

Mark Woodbury, Activities Director at NUHS said that "in order to maintain the success and integrity of the program, we felt that Dave Curry was the best person for the job."

MIHEVE ON DEFENSE: Offense and defense in high school football have relatively simple objectives.

One is to score while the other is to stop the scoring.

New Ulm Cathedral defensive coach John Miheve said that defense "is really simple. You have to tackle the guy with the ball."

Miheve said that co-ordinating a defensive game plan, like an offensive co-ordinator develops his strategy, involves a lot of film watching of the upcoming opponent.

"You try to figure out what the other team is really good at and figure out a way to stop it," he said. 'That is about as simple as you can get."

Mieheve said that the battle between the defensive and opposing offensive coach can almost be like a chess match.

"It depends on the other team and the adjustments that they make," he said. "I am finding that, more and more, you are finding that it is becoming a chess match. Coaching has improved tremendously, especially on the offensive side. I am finding that I am having to make adjustments almost immediately during the game. You can end up going back-and-forth -sometimes, you really end up guessing."

Sometimes that means matching your strength against their strength or the strength of the defense against an offensive weakness.

"It depends on the situation -- last week (against McLeod West) we were trying to put our strength which is our defensive tackles against their strength which is their offensive tackles. We thought that by doing that we would take away from theirs but they have a couple of pretty good tackles. So we varied that a little bit and we put our strong players against their guards once in a while. We were forced to mix it up and it is tough to just remain in a defense an entire game.

"Offenses and play-calling is just getting to good," Miheve said.

Miheve will make his defensive adjustments to the offensive formations and defend those formations.

"How can a formation hurt you and link that with what you are trying to take away. If they decide to go to something else then you need to move people around, perhaps blitz more and maybe go to a different alignment on defense."

Against MLBO in an earlier game, the Wolverines had little success running the ball and then moved tight end Mark DeYounge to the backfield which resulted in some early success.

"But we did not change our defense too much because of that. We did not change an alignment or strategy, it was more of an idea this is where he is now so let's pay attention to him."

Adjustments are almost done every play in a game. "You look at a situation -- is it 1st and 10 or is it 3rd and short or is it 3rd and long -- what did they do the last time and was it successful. Many things go through your mind and you call the defense on what you think."

Personnel moves "really do not happen during a game," he said.

"That is where your preparation has to be. We have guys who are tackles or ends in practice. It could happen if you have a real radical thing happen."

By design, the Hounds are a reaction defense.

"By personnel, we are aggressive we have kids who like to hit," Miheve said. "We have blitzed very little but we have also gone into some different defenses. Players need to read their keys correctly. If a linebacker makes a wrong read and takes one or two steps in that direction, he is already out of the play. Reading defenses correctly is very important."

What is also important is a team believing in the defense. "They need to believe in what you are doing as a coach -- they need to be with you and focused on the same thing you are."

Before coaching defense, Miheve coached offense. "I think that having coached offense,I can understand what adjustments the offense may be making."

KNIGHTS WIN CLOSE GAME: Martin Luther College football coach Denny Gorsline said that the Knights were lucky to come away with a win Saturday against Blackburn College.

"They doubled us on the yardage, time of possession and they probabaly doubled us on penalties. But we stopped them on the one-foot line (by linebacker AJ Kruse) with four seconds to go in the game."

"We were tired most of the game -- they kept running at us. They were bigger than us but we got a win."

A.J. Kruse had a solid game at linebacker said Gorsline. "Noah Bater had a good game on offense with a 41-yard field goal and three extra points. He had four catches; one for a touchdown and Phil Hochmuth had a TD catch."

Bater took over for Phil Stuebbs who is out with back problems.

"Dan Lange threw for 97 yards which is a high for him this year."