Vikings expect success

Pitcher Chris Jordan is just one reason for the Vikings' success.
(Donnell Collins/For the Beacon News)

Geneva puts together best four-year stretch in school history
May 23, 2008BY PAUL JOHNSON -- SPECIAL TO THE BEACON NEWS


When Matt Hahn finally got his first chance to be a head baseball coach at Geneva in 2005, he came in with a clear message.

"My first goal when I became the head coach (after serving as an assistant under Gary Spratt) was that the whole attitude needed to change," Hahn said. "Guys were like, 'If we win, great. If we lose, it's no big deal because after the game we're going to go do something.' Guys up and down the program have bought in that just being out there isn't good enough."
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Hahn's vision has played out in the best four-year stretch in the history of the program. His Vikings won 21 games in his first year, reached a regional title game his second year and then posted the best season in school history last year.

The Vikings tied the school record with 24 wins, winning a Western Sun Conference title and a regional title for the first time.

Today at 10 a.m. against Bartlett, an 8-3 winner over Glenbard West Thursday, Geneva hosts its first regional championship game as the No. 4 seed, the most respect a Vikings team has ever received.

"We talk about what our program goals are (win conference, win 20 games and win a regional title), and that has become the expectation," Hahn said. "We have guys when we lose, it sits with them, it eats at them, the same way it eats at me. I think that's been the biggest change in the program, that we now expect to win."

Senior ace Chris Jordan, who won Geneva's regional semifinal game against Streamwood Wednesday, has been on the varsity team for three years and has seen first-hand what Hahn's influence has brought to the program.

"It's been great," Jordan said. "It's been a lot different. When I was a freshman, those seniors had a lot of talent but they didn't really play as a team. Coach has stressed playing as a team out here and I think that helps a lot."

In order to continue Geneva's rise to respectability, the Vikings will need to win Saturday and make a run at sectionals for the first time ever.

The first step in that direction comes this morning as No. 2 starter Rodney Nelson takes the hill against a solid Bartlett club from the strong Upstate Eight Conference.

Geneva is basically hoping to avoid the fate it has suffered the past two years. The Vikings were knocked out by the eventual state champions, Naperville Central and Neuqua Valley, the past two years.

"I'll bet we're the only team in the state that got knocked out by the eventual state champion the last two years," Hahn said. "It's a good feeling (to be in the regional finals for the third straight season), but we know that we won't be satisfied unless we win Saturday."