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STANFORD — The Lincoln County High School baseball program has a new leader. It will be Jeremy Noel’s job to get the Patriots back on a winning track in high school baseball.

Noel, a former head coach at Burgin High School, most recently served as an assistant coach at Mercer County High School and Boyle County High School. He played baseball all four years at BCHS. Noel, a pitcher and left fielder, went on to play for Rend Lake College in Illinois.

“I’m excited and honored to take this role over,” said Noel, who has been at Mercer the past two years. “We’re going to try to turn this thing around.”

Noel takes over a program that finished as 12th Region runner-up in 2017 only to fall off to 3-27 and 2-28 in the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

“They were one game away from going to the state tournament. It’s kind of disappointing to see how it dropped off,” Noel said. “Normally when that happens, kids get hungry and they come out. We’ll try to get them hungry again.”

Noel will not be the only new face in the Lincoln dugout in the spring as LCHS hired not only a head coach but a new staff, with Ty Noel and Mathew Schmuck hired as assistant coaches.

“We are very excited to have these men lead our baseball program,” Lincoln County Athletic Director Tim Estes said. “We didn’t just hire a new head coach, we hired a complete staff. We want our baseball program to become a consistent winner, and we feel as those these coaches can get us there.”

Ty Noel, Noel’s son, served as an assistant coach at both Burgin and Mercer. Noel, who is working toward a degree in education, specializes in hitting

Schmuck, a four-year player at Campbellsville High School, has previous coaching experience at Bourbon County High School. He is a former soccer and softball head coach. He graduated from Campbellsville University with a degree in Sports Journalism.

“Most of the time when coaches come in they bring a staff with them. I have a good seasoned staff, a young staff that will bring a lot to the table,” said Noel.

The new Bat Patriot coach got his first look at the team Tuesday.

“Fourteen to 15 kids came out and we had a high-energy practice,” Noel said. “They are actually ahead of what I thought they would be at this point. I thought maybe they would be further behind. We’ve got a way to go but we’ll get there. We’ll just try to progress every day. Feb. 15 is the first day of official practice and we hope to be ready to go by March.”