Spring sports will have a different look this season.

Both baseball and softball will have new head coaches going into the 2015 campaign.

Alex Koch was named the new baseball head coach back in July, while Shelli Manson was named the softball coach last Monday.

Koch becomes the 14th head coach in the program’s 54-year history and replaces Brian Disch, who resigned in May after five seasons as head coach to take a teaching position at Norfolk High School.

He has been associated with the Wildcat baseball program as a player and coach since 2006.

He served three seasons as an assistant coach with the Wildcats from 2010-12 and was a volunteer assistant with the program since accepting the position as director of the Wayne Community Activity Center in February, 2012.

Koch ranks second at Wayne State in career doubles (53), third in career RBI’s (181) and tied for sixth in career hits with 217.

He played on four NSIC regular season championship teams and four NCAA Tournament teams, including the 2009 team that reached the Central Region final.

Koch also has high school coaching experience, working with the Omaha Roncalli and Millard South Legion teams and most recently assisting the Wayne American Legion baseball program.

Wayne State College was 27-24 this season, finishing eighth in the Northern Sun Conference with an 18-15 league mark. It was the 17th straight winning season for Wildcat baseball.

As for the softball team, Manson became the 13th coach in the program’s 43-year history and replaces Krista Wood, who stepped down on July 22nd to become head coach at South Dakota State University.

Manson comes to Wayne State after spending the last five seasons at Westminster College in Fulton, Miss., an NCAA Division III school.

She inherited a program that was last place in the conference and elevated the team to a second place league finish in 2013 and fourth place finish in 2014.

Before being named head coach at Westminster, Manson was an assistant coach at Division I Louisiana Tech for three years where she helped the team win the WAC (Western Athletic Conference) Tournament championship in 2008.

She was also a graduate assistant coach at Defiance College in Ohio from 2004-06, where she obtained her master’s degree in sports science.

Manson received her bachelor degree at Muskingum College in Ohio where she was a standout player from 1999-2002.

She played on the 2001 NCAA Division III national championship team and was an All-Central Region third team outfielder at Muskingum.

Manson will take over a Wildcat softball program that returns eight starters and was 35-18 in the 2014 season, placing fourth in the NSIC with a 20-8 league mark.

Information courtesy of WSC Sports Information