School resource officer Tom Conover was recently announced as the new pitching coach for the baseball team. Conover had played baseball in college, and he expressed wanting to get back into his passion for the sport.

“I played baseball in college, and I did some coaching before I was a police officer. Coaching is something I’ve always enjoyed doing, and I wanted to get back into it. When Coach Roth came to me with the idea, I was all on board,” Conover said.

With these new changes comes new connections. Despite the season not starting until the end of January 2025, Conover has already started to build relationships with his players.

“As a resource officer, I want to give out to the community, so being part of the baseball program allows me to connect with a smaller group of kids. They get more familiar and comfortable with me, and hopefully their friends get more comfortable with me. That would make it easier for them to come to me if they need something,” Conover said.

But, to have these special connections with players, Conover needs to go through a process to become the coach.

“The process actually wasn’t that hard. Coach [Avery] Roth got with me and asked if I wanted to help out with the baseball program. I told him I had to discuss it with my family. Once I did that, I went to Coach Roth and said I was in. He said he’s happy to have me, and we’re ready to start working together,” Conover said.

Once baseball season starts officially, Conover will be submerged in baseball. Though baseball will be time consuming, it will hardly have an affect on his work schedule.

“Once workouts start and we start working with the kids in the winter, it should be a little more time consuming. But it won’t affect my job here at school. It’ll probably affect my wife and kids more,” Conover said.