After the completion of a disappointing season in 2010, the Goshen baseball program set its sights on the future.

However, the program had to move forward without an important piece from this past season.

Earlier this month, it was announced that head coach Ryan Ellison would be stepping down from the position for an opportunity to be closer to his home, according to athletic director Bart Snyder

It did not take too long for the program to find its new leading man though, as Robbie Kinsaul was announced as the new new skipper of the Eagles earlier this week.

“Ryan (Ellison) did an outstanding job for us,” Snyder said Wednesday afternoon.

“He got the guys to really buy into getting the program headed in the right direction.

“And now, I believe Robbie will do the same for us in the upcoming seasons. He is a getting to fulfill a dream of his to be a head baseball coach and he is very excited about the opportunity,” Snyder added.

This is not the first Eagle team Kinsaul has been a part of though.

This past season, Kinsaul managed the JV Goshen baseball squad and was an assistant coach on the varsity football team while working as the Physical Education teacher at Banks School.

Kinsaul’s first coaching job took place at Opelika Middle School, where he was the head coach of the basketball team and assistant coach of both the football and baseball team.

Following that stop, Kinsaul was in New Brockton, his high school alma mater, for three years, where he again was the head coach of the basketball team, and assistant coach for both football and baseball.

Now, he gets a shot at helping Goshen baseball take another step in the right direction.

“I am very excited about this opportunity,” Kinsaul said.

“When I got the call from Bart, I was torn because this is something I have always wanted to do, but I enjoyed my time at Banks very much.

“It was a tough decision, but I made the right choice,” he added.

The new Eagle coach said while he knew the challenge ahead of him and his team on the baseball diamond, he knows he has a talented group of kids coming back for the new season.

“There is nowhere to go for us but up,” Kinsaul said. “Coach Ellison did a great job of laying down a good foundation for us to build off of, and that is what we plan on doing.

“We have a group of kids here who are dedicated to winning and giving this team all that they can – and as a coach, you can’t ask for much more,” he said.

This past season, the Eagles won just two games, but the number of wins is not a number that Kinsaul said he is concerned with.

“The last couple of years have been down years (for Goshen), everyone knows that,” the coach said.

“Every coach talks about the importance of winning, but that is not always the most important thing,” the coach said.

“The kids are still working hard and I want to show them that their hard work will pay off in the end.”

Even though the baseball season is still a little under seven months away from starting, Kinsaul and his new team have already begun preparing for the season during the summer, with the hopes of getting the baseball program back on track.

“We had a young team out there (this past season).,” Kinsaul said. “But we have a lot of kids coming back, and I truly believe they are going to be we are going to be competitive.

“The sky’s the limit for us,” Kinsaul added.