Date: Fri 08-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

New-COaches-Baseball

Full Text:

Winsett/Borchetta - New Baseball Coaches

B Y  T . W YATT

Earlier this winter, Newtown High School chose its replacement for the varsity

baseball coaching position vacated by Tony Urban, who resigned it at the end

of last season.

Pending approval by the Board of Education, Dan Winsett will become Newtown

High's new varsity skipper and Al Borchetta, last year's NHS jayvee coach,

will join him as varsity assistant.

John Chiapetta, last year's freshman coach, will head up the jayvee program,

and Mike Gauthier will coach the freshman team.

" I'm really pumped up, " said Winsett, who compiled a record of 71-40 as

Newtown High's jayvee coach, after coaching jayvee baseball in Ohio for eleven

years. " I've got some exciting ideas for this program.

" We're going to try to run this whole program together, which is something

we've never done before here, " Winsett added. " The varsity and the jayvee

teams are going to work out together as much as possible, at least one day a

week. "

Borchetta coached the jayvee team last season after rebuilding the high

school's freshman program three years ago and coaching it voluntarily for two

years. " I'm real excited about this, " he said. " I think Dan and I will work

well together. We both have the kids in mind and both want to see the program

be a success. We have two good coaches underneath us and have a lot of good

baseball talent in the system. It's a nice situation here. "

The two plan to bounce ideas off one another during the course of the season

with Borchetta, who pitched in the California Angels minor league system in

the early seventies, working primarily with the Indians' pitching staff.

What exciting new ideas does this NHS coaching duo have in mind?

" Well, for starters, we're both going to donate our coaching salaries to the

improvement of the baseball facility, " Winsett explained. " We want to

enclose the entire field, with an outfield fence all around. I want to take

the backstop out of there an put in a new one with a Major League overhang on

it. We also would like to put in two dugouts, and a scoreboard. Bleachers are

scheduled to go in this year, through the booster club. This whole operation

should be about a three-year process. "

Another change that Winsett has in mind is to practice from 2:15 until no

later than 4:15 daily and then turning the field over to Chiapetta and the

jayvee team. In past year's the jayvee team hasn't had an infield to practice

on. " I'm from the old school, " Winsett said. " If I can't get a high school

baseball team practiced in a hundred minutes, then we might as well close up

and go home. There's nothing more boring than a long drawn-out practice. After

six-plus hours of sitting in school, that defeats the whole purpose. "

Winsett and Borchetta plan on interviewing all of their prospective players,

one-on-one, to talk with them about their expectations and to get a

one-hundred percent commitment.

The two are also happy with the two coaches beneath them.

Chiapetta played shortstop for Newtown High in 1985 and 1986 before returning

to lead last year's freshman team to a 13-2 record. He teaches at the Newtown

Middle School.

Gauthier, who coached the NHS freshman soccer team last fall, teaches at the

high school, and is excited to be coaching his favorite sport this spring.

Gauthier played shortstop and second base for four years at East Hampton High

School on Long Island where he was an All-Conference player.