Oneonta's Mark ready to take the reigns as Outlaws' new coach

Apr. 3—The Oneonta Outlaws will have a new head coach for the 2023 season, and it's one that those who know local baseball might be familiar with.

Oneonta High School alumnus Keaton Mark was named the Outlaws' new skipper this past February, adding another stop on his journey through the local baseball ranks.

Mark, a member of the OHS Class of 2017, played football, basketball and baseball for the Yellowjackets through high school.

"My senior year I really liked basketball and baseball." Mark said. "I knew baseball was definitely going to be it for me. I decided my senior year that I was going to play baseball in college."

Mark then played his college ball at Division III Heidelberg University for five years.

"I knew baseball was my sport, I just knew I loved the game," he said.

Mark, currently an assistant coach at SUNY Cobleskill, knew he wanted to get into coaching as soon as he was done playing.

"I just wanted to be around baseball," he said. "This year was my first year out and I knew I definitely wanted to coach."

He had planned on being around the Cobleskill baseball team this season but wasn't sure in what capacity that would be right away.

"Lance Ratchford used to be my hitting coach, and he used to be the head coach at Cobleskill until this year when he got that promotion up to Marist," Mark said. "I had just got back to Oneonta after completing my master's and he gave me a call that he got that job. It helped because I didn't know what my role was going to be, if I was just helping out or going to have a full-time job, but since he left, the assistant coach took over the head coach job. I was able to grab the assistant coach job."

When offered the Outlaws job, Mark couldn't wait to accept.

"I was very happy to accept the job, very happy for this opportunity," he said. "It's great for me going forward, and it's going to be a lot of fun. I love the experience and I love the opportunity I have this summer. It will be great to be able to do it in my hometown. A place that I know, I've played there, I know how everything works so It should go pretty smoothly."

Mark was an outfielder for the Outlaws in 2021, an experience he enjoyed.

"It was awesome; I got to play for Joe Hughes, who was also my high school coach, so that was familiar, and it was awesome," he said. "I still golf with Joe all the time and keep in touch with him. It was a great experience. I met some other guys there that I still keep in touch with today, that are still playing, and it was a great experience to play for the hometown again."

The ties to the community go further than just playing at OHS. Mark remembers watching Oneonta Tigers and Outlaws games at Damaschke Field as a kid. Beginning when he was in eighth grade, his family hosted an Outlaws player every summer until his senior year of high school.

"It's kind of been around me forever," he said. "It was a great experience hosting them".

Mark said it means a lot to be the head coach of his hometown Outlaws.

"Everybody knows me, I know most of the people still in Oneonta," he explained. "Some of these people I know are still involved with the Outlaws and I'm actually coaching some of them. I know some of the parents that are helping us out. It's just awesome to be connected to so many different avenues of the program. It means a lot to me, graduating from Oneonta, and coming back to be the coach of my hometown. It's just great."

Mark said that his roster is just about complete at 38 players, and one of his first goals was to surround those players with the best coaching staff he can.

"We have a decent amount of coaching, not just one or two coaches," he said. "I have a pitching coach from Castleton University, and we also have an assistant coach I went to college with, who coaches an 18U team in Detroit. I really wanted to surround the guys with a good coaching staff and just more than myself. I can do pitching stuff but it's nice to have a pitching coach because I'm more of a position guy. One of my first goals was getting a coaching staff up and going that I'd be able to work with. We're around the same age group so I think it's going to mold really well."

Once his coaching staff was set, Mark wanted to make sure he loaded up on pitching.

"I want a lot of arms ready to go," he said. "It's never a good look to run out of pitching or to have guys sore. You never want to run into a case where you have to run out a position player. I really wanted to make sure we stocked up on pitching."

One thing Mark emphasized was some of the improvements for the community he and Outlaws President/General Manager Gary Laing have planned.

"Gary and I have been working a lot," Mark said. "We're trying to get interns back, we want to get more of a community sense going that we haven't had in a couple of years. I'm trying to get a live stream going, and there's a bunch of other stuff we're trying to do. Trying to give a better experience, even for the kids' families that can't make it to games so that they get to watch."

The Outlaws' season in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League begins on Friday, June 2 when they host the Boonville Lumberjacks at Damaschke Field.