Plenty of NSU in Baseball America Top 25

The Baseball America college preseason Top 25 poll just came out and there are several reasons for Demon fans to be proud.

Texas A&M is the preseason No. 1. The Aggies' head coach is former Demon pitching coach Rob Childress (1995-1997), and their third base coach and recruiting coordinator is Matt Deggs, who was here at the same time on the staff of Dave Van Horn.

Van Horn is back at his alma mater, Arkansas, and the Razorbacks again are in the Top 25, at No. 22. Last year when the Demon basketball team was in Fayetteville, Van Horn reminisced fondly about his days at NSU during a halftime radio interview on the Demon Sports Network.

His program is one spot ahead of Alabama, where NSU alum Jim Wells has been head coach since 1995. Alongside Wells is Mitch Gaspard, who was Wells' assistant with the Demons in 1993-94, then at Alabama from 1995-2001, before he took over as NSU's head coach from 2002-2007. Gaspard returned to Alabama for the 2008 season and his recruiting has obviously provided a lift.

Wells is a Bossier City native and former head coach from 1982-86 at Loyola Prep. He got his baseball coaching staff in Dixie Youth ball in Bossier City.

Sitting at No. 6 in the poll is Ole Miss, where former LSU catcher Mike Bianco is head coach. Bianco was Wells' assistant coach in 1991-92 with the Demons.

Don't be surprised before the season ends to see former Demon head coach John Cohen (1998-2001) leading his first-year team at Mississippi State (his alma mater) into the rankings. If not in 2009, it will happen soon after. Just ask anybody who follows Kentucky. Cohen turned the Wildcats from SEC afterthoughts to SEC champs in his second year there as head coach.

Watch KTBS sports tonight at 10:25

Reporter and weekend anchor Leslie Spoon has produced a four-minute story on the McConathy family tradition and Demon basketball. It airs tonight during the Sunday evening extended sportscast on KTBS-TV Channel 3 in Shreveport.

If you miss it, KTBS does a great job of posting its content on the www.ktbs.com website on the sports page.

Spoon was a standout player at Benton High School who attended Coach Mike's camps in Bossier City when he was the Bossier Parish Community College coach and she was a little girl in the 1990s.