March 29, 2024

Namanny takes over SWCC baseball

Continuing the trend of coaching turnover this summer, the Southwestern Community College baseball team has a new man in charge.

Kenneth Namanny takes over for now former coach Pedro Hernandez, who departs the program to take an unspecified opportunity back in Hernandez’s hometown in Puerto Rico.

Namanny, a graduate of Denison-Schleswig High School, knows his way around western Iowa baseball, as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the program since 2014.

Being a head coach is something that has been on Namanny’s radar for some time, though he says he didn’t see the opportunity coming.

“When I got into playing college baseball I thought being a head coach someday down the road and I’m very fortunate to be in this position at a young age,” Namanny said.

Namanny, who is 26, brings his Hawkeye 10 baseball pedigree from a Monarch program led by longtime coach Don Lyons, and has been involved in baseball around west and southwest Iowa for a decade.

Namanny helped bring on several players in recent years from the southwest part of the state and will look to bring in players from the region.

“I got into that a little bit with this incoming class but it’s always nice to start in Iowa and I like to get in Nebraska and Missouri,” Namanny said.

Namanny has embraced the challenge and communicated some expectation so his players after accepting the job.

“The group that we’ve got coming back and the incoming freshman, I’m excited,” Namanny said on Friday. “I communicated to them what’s going to happen in the last 48 hours. I’m just excited to work with them.”

Hernandez finishes his tenure that started in 2014 and the Spartans went 18-37 in his third season as head coach.

“We are very fortunate to have a more than capable assistant in Coach Namanny here to step in and assure the coaching staff does not miss a beat with the start of classes just a month away,” SWCC athletic director Todd Lorensen said in a news release. “Kenny and Pedro have always worked closely together and Pedro is leaving the program in great hands. I’m confident Coach Namanny is ready to be the head coach at Southwestern Community College.”

Hernandez did not respond to requests for comment.