O’Donnell is new CHS baseball coach

Neal O’Donnell

Columbia High School has a new but familiar varsity baseball coach. Neal O’Donnell, who has been with the program for the past nine seasons, will enter his 10th as head coach.

He started his coaching tenure at Columbia as the head coach for the junior varsity squad. For the past seven seasons, he has been an assistant coach to former CHS head coach Keith Jany.

“I’m really excited about it,” O’Donnell said. “I think we’ve got a great group of kids and I think they’re excited for the season. I really feel excited to work with the baseball program. We have high standards; we have a winning culture. Again, I’m just excited to be a part of it.”

During Jany’s seven seasons as head coach, the Eagles compiled a record of 149-74. The team won a state title when Jany was an assistant coach in the 2007 season. That was also one of the first seasons O’Donnell was with the program.

“There’s a lot of support for all athletics in Columbia. But there’s a lot of support for the baseball program. Since I’ve been here, we’ve had a lot of success,” O’Donnell said. “In the years that Jany was the coach, I think we never had less than 20 wins. The first year I was in the program was the year we won the state baseball championship. Kids are excited to play the game and want to do well. They’ve got a good baseball background and knowledge, which makes it easy to work with them.”

Before Jany took over, coach Dustin Nail ran the team. Under his six-year term as head coach, the Eagles were 133-69. Not only did they win that 2007 state championship, they took fourth place at state the year prior. O’Donnell said he wants to continue Columbia’s rich baseball tradition.

“Coach Jany is a great coach. He really continued on what was built with coach Nail,” O’Donnell said. “That’s what I know with Columbia baseball. (Jany) has a lot of passion for the game. He has a lot of passion for playing the game the right way. That will be missed. On the same token, I’m excited for the future of the program and I’m excited to lead the program.”
Jany left the program to focus on family.

Although this is going to be O’Donnell’s 10th season with the CHS program, he previously spent two years in Tennessee.

O’Donnell said he was an assistant for Houston High School in Germantown, a suburb of Memphis, for two years. They won a state title their as well.  So, O’Donnell has been part of two state championship programs.

“I’m excited to work with the guys at a different capacity. They know what to expect,” O’Donnell said. “The majority of the kids in the program had me as their eighth grade coach.

I’m also currently the middle school’s eighth grade coach. Like I said, they know what to expect. We’ve had a lot of success. We’ll make some tweaks here and there and as I see fit.”

O’Donnell grew up in Millstadt and graduated from Belleville West.

The 2016 baseball season officially starts in February.

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