BY MATT STOUT

Having lived in Maryland, there are many things about New Hampshire high school baseball that Jeff Miller is unfamiliar with. Having to plan practices around snow forecasts is certainly one of them.

Yet, when he stood before the John Stark baseball team during the largest tryout the program has ever hosted, the Generals’ new head coach noticed something he’d never seen, even as a coach at the Division-III collegiate level. And, to say the least, he was impressed.

“Where I’m from it’s kind of a pecking order,” said Miller, who boasts 14 years of coaching experience, including the last five as the infield coach for the McDaniel College Green Terror in Westminster, Md. “Down South, in baseball, it’s a seniors-juniors-sophomores-freshmen kind of deal, and it’s very much segregated and split, depending on your class level.

“But up here what I’ve noticed right away is these kids, they all seem to like each other,” he continued. “They all get along. It doesn’t matter that I’ve got 10th-graders starting with seniors. They all kind of accept their role, and they all work hard at it.”

It’s that team camaraderie and work ethic, combined with the buzz that surrounded Miller’s hiring, that has Stark thinking big this spring. At 2-16 last season, the Generals struggled with holding leads and closing games, though their final record didn’t completely reflect the team they were, said senior captain Bryan Stockhaus.

Emphasizing fundamentals from the start this year, Miller hopes to change all that. And while he’s not going to kid himself that he can turn Stark into a 10-win team in just one season, he wants it to let those around Class I know it will be a team to be dealt with this year and beyond.

If anything, he has the players excited to be part of that.

“I was talking to Bill Raycraft, the athletics director, just trying to figure out who he was talking to (for the job),” said junior captain Chad Croteau, one of 53 players to try out for the team this spring. “He actually said he had a lot of people apply for this and then I guess, last second (in early February) we had Coach Miller come out. So I was talking to Coach Raycraft and he said, ‘This guy has a ton of experience.’ I was wicked excited.”

Fortunately for Miller – who moved up to New Hampshire to be closer to his son Scott, in his first year on the New England College baseball team – he also has a solid crop of talent.

After graduating just one senior from last year’s team, the Generals feature four this season in Stockhaus, Jason Griswold, Marshall LeBell and newcomer Ryan Deyo.

But the team is dominated by a 10-man junior class. Among those who should help lead are junior captain Joey Plunckett, the team’s leadoff hitter; Croteau, the starting catcher; clean-up hitter Evan Paris; left-handed pitcher Kris Vincent; Daryl and Derek George, who can both pitch and play the field; and Zac Keim, a returning varsity player.

The pitching staff, however, will be led by sophomore Tom Vickers, “probably my best athlete,” Miller said. A standout as a freshman, Vickers should also see time at shortstop and perhaps catcher when others, such as No. 3 pitcher Kevin Leblond, are on the mound.

Miller admits the Generals are a little short on experienced arms past Vickers, Vincent and Leblond, but he has four others who can throw, including Griswold, the Georges and Ryan Hannon.

“I want to turn things around,” said Miller, who also is the defensive coordinator for the Con-Val football team. “I want to create a program where the feeder programs coming into this school, people want to play baseball at
John Stark. That’s kind of my hope for the future.”

Stark’s season was scheduled to start Wednesday, April 11, against Pelham.