IOWA FALLS, IOWA -- As he turns his attention to the offseason program for his team, first-year ECC baseball head coach Kirk Clark reflected on what his squad was able to accomplish during the fall season.  The new Ellsworth coach said, "As a team, I feel like we had a successful fall and I look forward to the development we see this winter."

Clark came to ECC after 4 years at South Dakota State University where he was the pitching coach.  "The biggest thing any coach wants to do is create a culture and an identity of their program," said Clark.  "We know what our identity is, but a culture isn't built in 6 weeks.  We're learning to become one and how to hold one another accountable."

The Panthers' roster features 17 returners and 26 newcomers and the fall campaign was the first time Clark had a chance to see a lot of the student-athletes play.  "So as much as I wanted to hit the ground running making adjustments, the first part of the fall was more of an evaluation," Clark said.  "We as a coaching staff really took time to know our guys so we could gain their trust and have them feel comfortable."

While much of the leadership for this ECC team will come from a solid list of players back from the 2021-22 team, Clark said he has already seen some first-year guys step into a leadership role.

Those back from a year ago include position players Jalen Aguiniga, who had the best batting average on the team at .349 in 17 games, Jose Valentin, who hit .303 with 7 homers and a team-high 45 RBIs, Nick Chasey, Kristian Crespo, Diego Dinzey, Alexis Ruiz and Tate Walker, along with Sergio Natera, Derihan Suero, Jonathan Rosado, Memphis Moore, Ethan Whitham and Daviel Camacho, who all saw action on the mound last spring.  "Pitching was the eye-opener for our program this fall," Clark pointed out.  "We competed well on the mound and have some good pieces to help us become successful."

The ECC coach knows about pitching and it's importance to the success of a team, having been a standout pitcher both in college and the professional ranks as well as experience as a pitching coach at South Dakota State and Wayne State (NE).

Clark emphasized, "Overall, I preach 3 things to our team:  Aggressiveness, Being Decisive (even if you're wrong) and Communication.  I feel we ended the fall better in all 3 areas, but there is room for improvement."

When asked to name any players who had a particularly good fall, Clark said, "I could list probably 25 names.  We need to be more selfless, though.  The X's and O's will work themselves out.  We're still growing as a team to really help create a successful culture."

And now the Panthers have the offseason to continue to build that culture their coach deems so important.  "The winter months will consist of a lot of developmental work," according to the coach.  "I'm a big believer in perfecting strengths rather that working on weaknesses.  We will be hitting the weightroom, doing yoga twice a week, and doing a lot of one-on-one work with the guys to help individual development."

Ellsworth concluded the fall season last week in an intrasquad World Series and is scheduled to open the '23 spring season with 4 games at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN, in February.