Kindred replaces Kimball as Pretzels’ baseball coach

Joe Kindred is a head baseball coach again.

Kindred, who coached at Routt Catholic High School from 1995 to 2006, was hired by the New Berlin School Board to be the school’s new baseball coach at a board meeting Monday.

Kindred, who has been out of town at a conference, was informed of the board’s approval Friday.

Kindred will replace Tom Kimball, who recently took a job at Tolono Unity High School.

“I see it as a great opportunity for any coach coming in as far as a head coach following Tom Kimball,” Kindred said. “He’s done a great job making baseball an important thing here.”

In addition to coaching the high school team, Kindred will also coach the junior high team, something he did at Routt. New Berlin hasn’t had junior high baseball for three or four years, Kindred said.

“That’s one of the visions I have for New Berlin, is to develop a junior high system that serves as a feeder system into the high school program,” he said.

Kindred also wants to help out with the youth baseball programs in the three towns — New Berlin, Franklin and Waverly — that send their boys to play baseball at New Berlin.

“I really think that for a high school coach to be dedicated to his program, you have to have some sort of contact with those lower level teams,” Kindred said. “I really would like it to be a point of emphasis for me to be highly visible, and hopefully be allowed to work with those individuals and to put our system in, and to teach those kids what we expect coming into junior high.”

Kindred, who is originally from Waverly, said it’s a bonus that he already knows most of his players coming back next year. Kindred was an assistant coach at New Berlin last season.

“It is a plus, being around not only the players, but the assistant coaches that have worked with Tom the last couple years,” Kindred said. “But getting to know the kids, their work ethic, their habits — both good and bad — I can come in with the idea that these are the things that we have to improve on.”

Kindred, who has taught junior high math at New Berlin the past two years, was an assistant to MacMurray College head coach Fred Curtis in 2007 before assisting Kimball this year.

Kindred has a career coaching record of 160-127 at Routt, including three regional championships and four conference titles. He was named the Journal-Courier’s Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2006.

Kindred said the excitement he felt when hearing the news of his new job was tempered.

“I’ve been a head coach before, so the excitement that maybe a new coach might have isn’t there,” he said. “But I am excited in taking on a new program and all the obstacles that come along with that.”