Padron takes over at Wheeling

Matt Padron knows a little bit about chemistry since he teaches the subject at Wheeling.

Now he’ll be trying to put together a formula for success with Wheeling’s baseball program. Padron was named as the varsity head coach Thursday after seven years of working at the freshman and sophomore levels.

Padron replaces Mike Tice, who resigned after eight seasons. And coaching baseball has been a big part of Padron’s life since his dad Richard has been doing it for 35-plus years at Hustisford-Dodgeland High School in Wisconsin.

Matt Padron’s high school coach at Watertown, Wis., Rusty Tiedemann, was also a big influence in getting into teaching and coaching.

“It’s something I’ve always dreamed about,” Padron said. “They are two of my role models and I saw the positive impact both of those individuals had on young men.

“It’s great to teach the game of baseball but it’s more important to teach them how to develop character.”

Padron also played for four years at Wisconsin Lutheran College and was a volunteer coach with his father for a year before coming to Wheeling. He spent the last two seasons coaching the freshmen.

Padron said he has four basic expectations for his players.

“I want them to be successful in the classroom first of all,” Padron said.

“I want them to take pride in Wheeling High School and the baseball program, be good teammates, be competitive and along the way develop good baseball skills.”

Padron also has a couple of aspects he believes will characterize his teams.

“I like to play pressure baseball and my philosophy is to be aggressive on the basepaths,” Padron said. “I want our players to execute the fundamentals and put themselves in a position to compete in the end.”

That’s been one of the biggest challenges as Wheeling hasn’t had a winning season since 1989 and finished 5-21 this spring. The last .500 season was in 1995 when it reached the sectional finals and it also reached the sectional semifinals in 2005.

“In my discussions with Steve (May, assistant principal for student activities) and (principal) Laz (Lopez), one of my big goals is the outreach to the community,” Padron said. “I want to work with the community to develop a community of baseball in Wheeling, so we have players come in with the baseball skills so we can compete in the conference.”