Andy Manes will be named new Warsaw baseball head coach pending board approval. (Photo provided)

WARSAW – Looking to take the step in getting the Warsaw baseball program to the next level, the Tigers have brought in Andy Manes as its next baseball coach.

Another former area star is coming into take over his former program in John Wesley Maierle, who will take over the boys track program.

Manes is a graduate of Lincoln Christian High School in Nebraska and later played baseball for Grace College from 1997-2000. The past four seasons, Manes has been a program assistant for Warsaw baseball.

At Grace, Manes has a series of career and season top-10 marks. His 110 career RBIs ranks third all-time in Grace program history, and also is tied for sixth in homers (11), tied for eighth in doubles (30) and ninth in hits (140). His 11 doubles and 33 runs scored in 1999 put him in top-10 season categories, as did his 38 RBIs in 1998. He was a three-time Mid-Central Conference First Team selection while at Grace, and is noted to have four years of American Legion playing experience with a handful of accomplishments within.

Manes replaces his former boss in Mike Hepler, who leaves the Warsaw program after guiding the Tigers for 13 seasons, winning a pair of sectional titles in 2006 and 2010. Warsaw went 7-17 this past season and 3-11 in Northern Lakes Conference play, falling to Penn in the sectional to conclude its season.

Maierle is a 2006 WCHS graduate who excelled in three sports, track being one of the three. Maierle later went on to Bethel College where he was a five-time All-American in indoor and outdoor events and still holds the school records for long jump, decathlon and heptathlon events. Maierle would go on to coach at both Bethel and Olivet Nazarene where he coached two athletes to national championships and oversaw 29 All-Americans and 110 national qualifiers.

Maierle replaces boys track coach Matt Thacker, who helped Warsaw become the elite track program in the Northern Lakes Conference. Thacker left Warsaw this past summer to take the head coaching football job at Fairfield High School. The Tiger track program has won seven sectional titles this decade and were NLC champions seven years in a row from 2011-17.

The hires of Manes and Maierle are pending WCS board approval.