Baseball: Ryan LaSota hired as new Streamwood coach

Ryan LaSota will be at the reins of Streamwood’s baseball program as it moves in a new direction.

LaSota was hired as the new coach of the Sabres earlier this week, and he will dive right into his new role with the start of the team’s summer program next week. He replaces Steve Diversey, who stepped down after the 2012 season following five years at the helm.

Streamwood is only two years removed from claiming its first sectional title in program history, but all of the key contributors from that 2011 squad are now gone as the Sabres look to improve on their 10-26 finish in 2012.

The job of getting things back on track falls to LaSota, who served as Streamwood’s sophomore coach last spring following stints as an assistant coach at St. Edward, Elgin, South Elgin and St. Rita.

“I’ve coached in the area for a number of years and I’ve kind of followed what Streamwood has been doing,” LaSota said. “Obviously it was an exciting run two years ago when they had their sectional run, so it’s nice to jump into a program that’s had some recent success.”

LaSota is a 1997 graduate of Weber High who went on to pitch at North Park University. He currently teaches physical education at Eastview Middle School in Bartlett.

LaSota began his coaching career as an assistant at St. Rita for three years. He then spent one year as a volunteer coach at South Elgin, three years as a lower level coach at Elgin and one year as the varsity pitching coach at St. Edward.

With the summer season set to begin, LaSota plans to use the coming weeks to set the tone for the 2013 campaign and beyond.

“I’ll be looking for the guys to play hard,” LaSota said. “As a pitching guy I’m a stickler for defense and pitchers throwing strikes. I want us to be a scrappy team where we’re going to be able to execute hit and runs, bunts or whatever it may be.”

© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.