Eby leaves coaching job at Westlake to take over position at Newbury Park

By Steve AmesSpecial to the Acorn

Josh Eby While there’ve been more losses than wins during the regular season of the Valley Invitational Baseball League, head coach Josh Eby said the overall play of the Warriors hasn’t been a disappointment to him.

Nevertheless, Eby, after three seasons as head coach, will leave his Westlake assignment after the VIBL playoffs to become the dean of attendance at Newbury Park High School.

“They’ll be hiring a new coach at Westlake hopefully before the year starts,” said Eby, who completed his master’s degree and administrative credential at Cal State Northridge a year ago. “I’ve seen the facility grow. I’m really proud of the way things have gone. There’s been a lot of support from administration, all the other teachers, the parents, the players.”

Eby led Westlake, his alma mater, to a Marmonte League championship in 2003 in his first season as head coach. That season the Warriors went 17-9 and 11-3 in Marmonte, winning their final five league games. Overall, Eby’s overall record at WHS as head coach was 41-40.

“Deciding to leave all this, the players and the surroundings, it’s just kind of an opportunity I had to take at this point in my life,” Eby said. “I really want the program to continue to thrive and be successful without me.”

The Warriors finished this summer of VIBL in 19th place out of the 22 teams with a 1315 overall record, after finishing in fourth place during the Marmonte League spring season.

“I think they’re going to be a pretty solid group of players,” Eby said. “We’re getting better as we go along. It’s just going to take some work to get us back to where we want to be. I see good things in the future here.”

The coach said that the most consistent hitter is senior left fielder Jake Fiss, one of 10 returning, eight of whom are seniors. Ten players graduated in June. Fiss played in the (VIBL) All-Star Game.

Junior first baseman Jason Barmasse has made a positive mark for the Warriors’ summer team. Also, sophomore Cutter Dykstra has moved over from second to short.

“He seems to have made the transition pretty well. He’s hitting the ball well,” Eby said.

Eby said newcomer junior Tyler Malinger should provide the team a big boost. He said Malinger, junior Brad Nutter and junior Steven Soucy have been the top three Westlake performers this summer.

Westlake has all sophomore pitchers.

“They’ve done pretty well considering,” Eby said.

The hurlers include Jeremy Hardman and Alex Gillingham.

Each year the Warriors come up with a saying for what they want their baseball season to be, and Eby said he thought the team did a good job this year with “Restore the Tradition. Get Your Work In.”

“The idea of getting your work in is we are always working no matter what time period, rain or shine, whatever, we’re going to work hard,” Eby said. “Whoever takes (over) the program will get a great bunch of kids who want to work hard and I wish them the best.”