<b>Coach: </b>J.D. Detwiler, first season
<b>2007 Record: </b>14-10
<b>Key Losses: </b> P A.J. Johnson, Danny Diana, Travis Medina, OF Wells Guthrie.
<b>Key Players:</b> SS Jimmy Kalina, SR; C Chris McCloud, JR; 3B Michael Delbuono, JR; P Brandon Kuter, JR.
<b>Quotable:</b> “The potential is there. Potential is sometimes a scary word to use, sometimes, but I do think that the potential is there.” – Robinson head coach J.D. Detwiler.
<b>Outlook:</b> The Robinson Rams enter this season as the two-time defending Concorde District champions. Yet, the Rams that will take the field on opening day will look much different than the Robinson team that took the field last year. The Rams were hit hard by graduation last year, losing seven seniors, including 2007 Concorde District pitcher-of-the-year A.J. Johnson and first-team, all-region selection Wells Guthrie. Danny Diana, who set the school home run record last year also graduated, along with all-district selection Travis Medina.
“As a team, we are very inexperienced. When you lose seven starters from the year before, I don’t know if we can replace that,” said head coach J.D. Detwiler. Perhaps the greatest difference is Detwiler himself, who replaces Bill Evers to become the fourth Robinson head coach since 1972.
Detwiler, who graduated from Chantilly High School in 1998, was a varsity assistant under Evers for the past five years. When Evers left the position to move into the administrative principal role at Robinson, Detwiler applied for the position.
“It has always been a goal of mine to be a head coach, and it was just great opportunity to stay put. It was just a good situation for me to get started as a head coach,” said Detwiler, who wasn’t surprised when he learned that he had secured the job. “I was able to learn under one of the better coaches in the region in Bill Evers. I knew that I had a good shot at it.”
Despite the Rams’ youth, Detwiler sees potential in his squad.
“The potential is there,” he said. “Potential is sometimes a scary word to use, sometimes, but I do think that the potential is there. I don’t think that we are there right now because of the inexperience. We have a lot of guys that have the ability to do it, but they just haven’t done it before.”