Archer City’s baseball team is enjoying a strong season. The Wildcats are in the mix for the 9-2A title and hope to make some noise during the upcoming playoffs.
Whatever happens the next few weeks, it will be coach Wes Johnson’s last hurrah with his squad.
Johnson was hired Thursday night at a Class 2A school in West Texas. He will be Ralls’ offensive coordinator during football season, head boys basketball coach and assistant baseball coach next year.
“It was kind of hard because we’ve got a pretty good baseball team and we’re going to be good because we’re so young,” Johnson said. “My buddy (Ralls AD/HFC Kevin Sherrill) asked me to come with him and it was a good opportunity.”
It’s not only a change of scenery for Johnson, who has been Archer City’s head baseball coach from 2013-15 and again in 2018. It’s also a change in coaching duties as he was the defensive coordinator under Shad Hanna and hasn’t been a head basketball coach before.
“It’s going to be a little bit different, but starting out I was an assistant basketball coach at Nazareth and we won state,” Johnson said. “To me, coaching basketball will just be like anything else. Get the kids to play hard and good things happen.”
Johnson said he debated whether to tell his group he was leaving during an important stretch run, but opened up the day before he was hired at Ralls, which is 30 miles east of Lubbock.
“They took it a little hard because I’ve been here so long,” Johnson said. “I told them it’s like our last hurrah together and let’s go as far as we can.”
Johnson’s son Reagan was Archer City’s second-leading tackler in 2017, making 82 stops as a sophomore. He’s also the starting catcher on the Wildcats’ baseball team, which is 14-6-2 and battling Windthorst for the 9-2A title.
Although the Archer City job hasn’t been posted yet, it becomes the second Archer County baseball gig to open with Holliday’s Sam Fluty retiring at the end of 2018. Both have strong tradition and both have plenty of underclassmen stepping up this spring.
The Wildcats started two freshmen and four sophomores in their 10-0 win Friday against Petrolia. Freshman Justin Browning struck out 14 batters and had three hits as the team’s No. 3 hitter. Sophomores Keegan Beaver and Dylan Briggs bat at the top of the lineup.
“This will be a good job for someone,” Johnson said.
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