GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – The Green Bay Preble baseball program went under a head coaching transition this past year, yet the Hornets haven’t skipped a beat under new skipper Clint Petasek.

Up until the end of the 2021 season, Andy Conard ran the Preble baseball program and during his tenure, Conard set a winning tone. In Andy’s seven years with the school, the Hornets posted a 132-34 record and punched their ticket to the WIAA State Tournament four times.

With a new season on hand, the school hired a new head coach. Petasek, a 1996 Preble graduate, told Local 5 that this was a dream job. While the school is in search of its first-ever baseball state title, Petasek was unable to achieve that as a player. Now, he has the opportunity to do so as the Hornets’ head coach.

“I played here and my dream as a player was to win a state championship and unfortunately it didn’t happen. At some point, in the next 10 or 15 years, I’d like to – it’d be really cool to win one. It really would,” said Petasek.

With the winning tradition implemented in the program, the players have bought in on Petasek and his coaching style.

“Just really trusting him. We trust him and the trust we’ve built within this program. We trust each other and that goes along with coach and he runs everything,” senior Jake Petasek said.

“He takes a lot of time in. He really loves us all. Just a great guy and great coach,” said senior Reese Berg.

The Hornets are off to a scorching hot start to the season posting a 4-0 record that included a gritty come from behind victory against conference rivals Bay Port. That win has boosted the team’s confidence tremendously and even though Petasek still thinks there’s still work to be done, the road to the finish line isn’t going to be easy in the Fox River Classic Conference.

“We have an older team, so there’s a lot of leadership but it’s almost like a family. They care about each other and I think that’s a strength. Every one of them. I just think they’re hard workers,” head coach Petasek said.

“We’re just focusing on ourselves. We really want to stick together and stick to that family aspect and see where that can take us,” said senior Petasek. “We didn’t have really expectations or anything like that, we just came in and wanted to play our game.”

“It’s just been awesome. We’ve all been playing together since we were eight. So, we want to keep it going. One last year,” Berg explained.

For the seniors on the team, making history as they end their high school careers would mean everything to them. That includes Petasek who has the opportunity to be the first coach to put gold in the trophy case for the baseball program at Preble.

“As a player, that was always one of my dreams – but we’re going to take it one game at a time. Like I said, the first four games went well but we have a tough conference. We really do,” said head coach Petasek. “It’s going to be a battle. There’s not really an easy game at all.”

“We’re going to reach for the stars. That’s what we want to do. We want to win. We’re going to take it one game at a time and see where we can come out,” said senior Petasek.