By Craig Juer -- Daily Staff Writer

WINCHESTER one would have blamed Jared Mounts if the Colonels had a down year.

James Wood won the Northwestern District's regular season and tournament in 2007, but lost 12 players to graduation, including David Keyser (.354 BA), Jacob Cain (three doubles), Craig Parrill (.306 BA), Logan Eiland (nine runs) and Greg VanSickler (7-1, 0.79 ERA).

But with a solid core of seven players — Cory Asberry, Josh Dick, Brandon Ewing, Dwayne Nalls, Tyler Orndorff, Cory Woodall and Hunter Leight — back from the 2007 roster, Mounts had some talent to work with, and found a way to turn the mass exodus from an excuse into an asset.

"He actually put a picture on the bulletin board that had last year's team," Dick said, referring to a board of baseball-related announcements outside the Colonels' locker room. "And the writing underneath that said, 'Last year we graduated 12. This year is a whole new year, and nobody expects you to do it again.' That really stuck with a lot of us."

The Colonels didn't win the district again — Brentsville (17-2, 13-1) was nearly untouchable — but finished 14-6 overall and 8-6 in the district, good for third in the regular season, and navigated their way to the tournament championship game and the accompanying Region II berth. And Mounts became The Northern Virginia Daily's 2008 Baseball Coach of the Year.

Mounts didn't go to the whip to get his team back up to speed; a prototypical "players coach," Mounts' team thrives on his approachability and good-naturedness.

"He listens to what people have to say. He'll understand their situation before he makes his decision," Dick said. "The fact that he coaches his son Tyler at 8 years old and he can coach high school seniors at 18 years old, it says something about you as a coach."

And favoritism, a potential pitfall for teachers and coaches at every level, isn't a concern under Mounts.

"He has great relationships with everybody," Asberry said. "He doesn't really get to know anybody more than anyone else."

When James Wood student Erica Jones died in a car accident last spring, it hit the baseball team hard. Several players were friends with Jones, and some even served as her pallbearers, according to Dick. Mounts did his best to ease his players' minds.

"He sat down and talked with some of the guys who were hurt by it," Dick said. "Even when that happened he was still able to keep the team together emotionally to finish out the season strong."

Making the dugout a welcome place for his players is one way Mounts goes about getting them to bleed, sweat and win for him.

"We're trying to instill discipline and a good work ethic, but at the same time we try to make it fun," he said. "We want them coming back to practice every day and want them working hard at practice, and we want it to be an overall enjoyable experience."

Another way he does it is by reminding them — with his shrewdly placed visual aid — of the standards they were obliged to maintain.

"It was basically a challenge to them," Mounts said of the bulletin board photo, "to try to come back and be successful again this year."

Mission accomplished.

R Contact Craig Juer at cjuer@nvdaily.com

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