The Fountain Hills High School baseball program has come under the direction of a new coach for the 2019 season, Joe Merklin, who is aiming to create a program that, with the help of others, will build up a young team.

The Falcons’ first game of the regular season is today, Feb. 20, at Fountain Hills Middle School, where FHHS will play Snowflake starting at 3:15 p.m.

The Falcons will also be competing in the Cougar Classic Tournament this Friday, Feb. 22, taking on Odyssey Institute at 10 a.m. and Payson at noon.

Merklin is a veteran coach with a career dating back to the seventies.

“I grew up in New Jersey,” Merklin said. “I was coaching there mid- to late ‘70s and eventually moved out here. Started coaching at Saguaro High School as an assistant until 2001, when I moved up north. Took over the Blue Ridge program in 2006 and coached there for eight years. We won five or six region titles and one state title.”

Merklin is big on the defensive game but, as a head coach, he relies on his assistant coaches to help cover the whole field.

“You’ve got to know the whole game if you’re coaching,” Merklin explained. “So I rely a lot on my assistants. Right now Matt (Pugliano) is handling J.V. We got Bobby Langer, who is going to do our hitters. I have got a guy for catchers and then I’ll have some old players of mine that are going to pop in here and there, too. My focus is to manage the game and I trust the assistants to do their jobs. They are all guys who have been around the game a long time.”

The Falcons’ roster this season has a lot of freshmen and sophomores but more than a handful of seniors are bringing some experience to the plate.

“Right now, senior-wise, we have a few who are new to the program but also some who are bringing good experience,” Merklin said. “Guys like Elijah Vargas, Jackson Coup, Cole Lupien and Hayden Adams. We do have a lot of sophomores and the freshmen class is really good, so we are going to have to rebuild it a little bit.”

As for his goals for the season, Merklin has told the team that he only has three.

“I always say I have three goals,” Merklin said. “To win 20-plus games, win the region title, win the state title and it doesn’t have to be in that order. You always compete for that title, but we will see.”