July 16 marked a new era for Westlake Baseball.
After the team’s Regional Semifinals loss to Pharr-San Juan-Alamo, longtime year head coach J.T. Blair made the decision to step down. In his 22 years at the helm, he coached the Chaps to 441 wins, 18 playoff appearances and one state playoff appearance. Over the summer, the Chaps announced their next head coach would be the 2023 MaxPreps Coach of the Year, Danny Wallace.
Wallace comes to Westlake after an incredible run at Flower Mound which included over 700 career wins and two state titles.
“We had a lot of hard working players [at Flower Mound] and many were very talented,” Wallace said. “We combined that with our core values and expectations of winning.”
He says that he will run the Chaps program with a “very similar approach”.
The ultimate goal of the new manager is a state title at Dell Diamond – something they haven’t done since 1984.
“Success at Westlake is winning the State Championship,” Wallace said.
Even beyond the talent on the varsity roster this year, Wallace knows that the program will be successful for years to come.
“This team has talent on the mound and when you can pitch you always have a chance to win,” Wallace said. “Our lower level teams are good on the mound too so that makes the future bright. We will use that pitching and team offense to build a championship program.”
Both senior pitchers Parker Saltsman and Hayes Brodhead return from last year’s team. The two were the district-play Tuesday and Friday starters respectively. Also returning is the District 26-6A All District Defensive Player of the Year, senior third baseman Austin Knox who will look to keep it up at the hot corner in his final year.
With 13 players on last year’s roster being seniors, juniors have needed to step up and become the new leaders on this year’s team.
“We have several players that are leading in different ways,” Wallace said. “But Hayes Brodhead and Austin Knox have been a big part of the leadership.”
Wallace retained pitching coach Ashley Dukes while also bringing in coaches Jeff Antoon, Adam Ayala and Garrett Sherrill to fill out the rest of his staff.
“We are all on the same page,” Wallace said. “And working to get our entire program headed to Dell Diamond.”
The team starts their season today with the Westlake Hill Country Classic at Woerner Field. They will play two teams a day, Thursday through Saturday. Those teams are Waxahachie, Keller, JJ Pearce, Rockwall, Coppell and San Marcos.
“The guys have worked very hard to get this started,” Wallace said. “And it will be fun to watch them improve during the year.”
