By BEN OVIATT

boviatt@timesobserver.com

This winter will be a season of change at Youngsville High School.

Two programs will be led by new coaches in the 2014-2015 winter sports season, which begins official practices next week. Former Chautauqua Lake Central High School (N.Y.) boys basketball coach Chris Dole will lead a Lady Eagles’ team coming off their first playoff appearance in over 10 years. A short walk down the hallways of Youngsville High School, Dave Myers takes charge of a wrestling room that has produced numerous district and state qualifiers over the years, and a team that advanced to the District 10 Class AA Team Tournament last season.

Youngsville isn’t the only school experiencing a coaching shift, as Russ Beyer steps in to fill the spot left by long-time Warren Area High School swim coach Jeff Walters.

The edge in experience belongs to Dole, who spent last season coaching Youngsville’s junior high program in the fall in addition to being a volunteer assistant with the Southwestern High School (N.Y.) boys team in the winter. He was the last coach of the old Chautauqua High School before the merger with Mayville Central in 1996, eventually taking over the boys job at the new Chautauqua Lake Central High School for four seasons from 2009-2013.

Along with his experience at the high school level, Dole has recently coached a handful of current Lady Eagles’ players along with his daughter at the AAU level.

“To make a long story short, its something I’ve wanted to do,” said Dole. “The parents approached me at a (YMCA) game and said ‘we need you to coach.’ It took me a while to commit to it… I’ve had a lot of support from the parents every step of the way.”

Dole will have an experienced group returning that includes three starters from last year’s team in Kennedy Cratty, Karissa Cratty and Aubree Hendrickson. The Lady Eagles also bring back varsity contributors in Kathy Sveda, Alison Ishman, and Hannah Bulard as well as a talented class of freshmen that Dole believes could see playing time right away.

“We did keep a lot of things from the previous coaching regime to make the transition easier,” said Dole. “We’re ushering in some new stuff, too, but keeping pieces of the old that I thought worked very well.”

Dole will be assisted by Matt Menard, who will also serve as the coach of the junior varsity team.

For Myers and the Youngsville wrestling squad, the challenge will be filling roster spots left vacant by the graduation of seven senior starters last season.

“Losing seven seniors hurt us pretty good,” said Myers. “Individually, what we don’t have in numbers I’d say we have in quality. We have Austin Slocum at heavyweight, Austin Spear at 197, Nate Lehman, probably at 113, and Aaron Hoover who was a region qualifier as a freshman at 145; a lot of varsity experience, a good core group and good leadership in the room.”

The spot at Youngsville will be the first varsity head coaching job for Myers. He previously ran the junior high program at Maplewood High School and was a volunteer assistant under Scott Ishman last season.

Ishman – head coach of the Eagles for three seasons – will return the favor as a volunteer under Myers this year. Youngsville High School alum Kevin Seeley will also be on hand as an assistant.

“Wrestling has always run pretty deep in my blood,” said Myers, whose son Jeremiah is entering his freshman season with the Eagles. “I got a real good handle on what the kids know (last season). I know we have some good kids in this room.”

At Warren – or the Warren YMCA, specifically, Beyer hopes to “keep the momentum going” for a program that had around 50 swimmers last year.

“I think there’s a lot of momentum going,” said Beyer, who swam at Gannon University, and who has three children involved in swimming in the YMCA and his oldest at Warren Area High School. “I wanted to keep that momentum going and building on it. Warren has a proud tradition of swimmers, and I thought it was meant to be… I consider it a challenge.”

Specifically, Beyer wants to continue promoting the program for “kids who have a chance to win districts and kids that have never swam before,” he said.

“If you have a really good coach and kids who are competitive, they can become really good swimmers,” he added.

Beyer graduated from Medina High School in Medina, N.Y., and later set eight records at Gannon, specializing in the individual medley (all four disciplines), as well as being team captain and placing in the top eight numerous times at the conference championships.

In Warren, Beyer wants to focus on – much like he said Walters, Fred Kylander and other coaches did – “utilizing the minimal time they had in the pool the best they could to great results.”

Lane 7 – Beyer said with six lanes at the YMCA and a large number of swimmers, Walters integrated dry-land exercises into practices with success.

“I’m excited about this opportunity,” said Beyer.

Out of the water, there isn’t much change to be seen at Warren. Jeff Berdine and Lisa Ruhlman return to lead the boys and girls basketball programs, respectively, in the 2014-2015 campaign. Berdine is entering his 13th season at the helm and boasts an overall record of 165-119. Ruhlman is in her seventh season with the Lady Dragons and is 80-57.

The Dragons also have the county’s longest tenured wrestling coach in Glenn Baldensperger, who has a record of 134-92 heading into his 14th season.

At Eisenhower, Dave Allenson is in his fourth season leading the boys basketball team after spending 11 seasons coaching the girls. Allenson looks to build on a record of 38-36 with the boys after posting a 171-101 mark in a number of successful seasons with the Lady Knights.

Greg Gourley will be coaching the Ike wrestlers for his second season while in Sheffield, Jack Rice enters season number four. Tony Richards and Jaimie Ely return for their second seasons in charge of the Wolverines’ boys and girls basketball programs, and Jim Kesterholt is another coach entering his second season with the Youngsville boys basketball team.

At Warren County Christian School, Tom Jones is back to coach both boys and girls programs for the third year. Dave Manning is entering his 10th season with the Tidioute Charter School boys while Jaime Hicks is a second-year coach of the Lady Bulldogs.

Official practices for the winter sports season are scheduled to begin on Monday.