With head coach gone, championship aspirations remain for North Oconee baseball
The North Oconee baseball team is a man down in the playoffs.
It is not just any man, but the one who led the team to back-to-back state championships. Former head coach Jay Lasley is headed to the majors after accepting a job from the Miami Marlins two weeks ago.
Lasley may be absent from the Titans’ playoff run, but the routine, work ethic and family mindset he instilled will be present throughout the playoffs — and for years to come.
“He exemplifies how to really be a head coach,” infield and JV head coach Brandon Gaubert said, “which was amazing to be around for the past six years.”
In the first round, North Oconee defeated Stockbridge in two games. The Titans advanced to play Westminster on Wednesday. They are attempting to secure their third straight state championship.
“I don't think we've skipped a beat,” Gaubert said.
Third base and hitting coach Matthew Kelley was given the title of interim head coach for the rest of the season, and North Oconee doesn’t have a plan yet for next season. All the current coaches are staying for the postseason, Gaubert said, and doing what they can to fill the void to give the players the best run they can.
“It's not me; it’s everybody,” Kelley said. “I mean, they may have given me the title, but we're all leaning on each other here and just trying to do a little bit more.”
Lasley moved to the Dominican Republic to become the international player development coordinator at the Miami Marlins’ academy there.
Lasley called the opportunity “exciting” but also “scary.”
“The little kid in me wanted to be a pro baseball player,” he said, “and now the little kid me is excited because I get to work and coach in professional baseball.”
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He added that he was “sad” to leave North Oconee. But he left knowing he had achieved his goals. When he was hired in 2016, athletic director Michael Dowis told him the goal was to build North Oconee into one of the best programs in the state — one that could compete for region and state championships.
Lasley accumulated a 209-62 record at North Oconee, winning four region championships and back-to-back state championships in 2022 and 2023. Now his coaching staff will try to build on that legacy.
“It's the best coaching staff in the state of Georgia,” senior Ryan Postnieks said. “I mean that. It's plain and simple.”
The Titans have a new coaching reality, but the mood has stayed the same.
“We know it's gonna be different but it's just adversity and we're gonna overcome it and I know we will be fine,” junior Landon Roldan said.
With Lasley gone, Kelley emphasized prior to the first round of playoffs that, “everybody wants to know about this and that and next year and that's not fair to these kids. What's important is that these kids are prepared for (the playoffs).”
With their first-round wins, the Titans seem ready to prove that they are capable of winning without Lasley in the dugout.
“It is the most exciting time of the year,” Postnieks said. “There's no other way to sugarcoat it more than that.”
Michael Pechacek is a student in the Sports Media Certificate program at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: North Oconee baseball still on title mission without coach Jay Lasley
