Britton Deerfield High School hires new baseball coach

Aggressive base running is something that Britton Deerfield’s new head varsity baseball coach Jared Janssen plans on featuring his first season. Janssen replaced DJ Lutz after he stepped in to help the Patriots out last spring.Janssen is a 2009 Ida High School graduate and was an assistant basketball coach there for two seasons. He also coached the Bluestreaks’ JV baseball team and an Ida summer Legion team. His position with BD is his first head-coaching job.He played four years of baseball, two at Mott Community College in Flint and two at Concordia University in Ann Arbor.“I’m really excited to work with the kids,” he said of joining the Patriots. A lot of what he learned in college will be incorporated into the Patriots’ baseball program. “We’re starting from square one,” He said. “I’m nervous for that first week because we still are putting stuff in. But, in baseball you learn a lot, especially in the early season.” The Patriots are deep in pitching with several returners including Trent Swindeman who Jenssen expects to be the team’s ace. Also mentioned as strong pitchers was returner Matt Mueller and first-season varsity player Alex Lord. Noah Snyder will be issued double duty as a returning pitcher and catcher. Swindeman will cover first base when not on the mound.Second base has not been filled but will be covered by committee until someone earns the starting spot.Mueller will also be the team’s shortstop. “He’s really smooth at short stop. I like what I see out of him,” said Jenssen.At third base will be Kolyne Suydam, a returner from last year.In the outfield, the coach has Levi Woerner returning in center field. “He looks really solid out there. He’s fast, athletic, tracks a lot of balls down,” said Jenssen.The other two outfield positions were still open. “The outfield positions are still open in the corners,” said Jenssen. “It’ll be a battle by committee, which is good to have competition, especially early in the season.”Jenssen said the Patriots also have a deep lineup that should help produce a lot of runs with his aggressive base running style of play. “I like to steal a lot of bases and we have a lot of speed,” he said. “I like to be aggressive on the base paths.”The coach said he has six returning players to rely on and having been bumped up into Division 3 this season he will need all of the players to step up. “They did bump us up into Division 3 this year so that’s a new task,” said Jenssen. “We’re looking forward to that. The school has never won a Division 3 baseball district ever, so that’s a goal that we are trying to achieve. The district is in Blissfield this year.”The Patriots won their first ever regional baseball title last season, which puts a target on their backs this year.“Last year, with the success they had, everyone will bring their A-game against us so we’ve got to make sure we’re prepared. And we will be,” said Jenssen. “We’ve just got to stay focused and play our game.”BD’s new assistant coach is Kyle Scheich.