The Desert Vista baseball team has a new look this spring, but the mentality of its overwhelmingly upper-classmen roster has stayed the same under first-year coach Cody Brassfield.

 

“Hard work, determination and passion,” Brassfield said. “That’s our motto, HDP. Hard workers determined and passionate about the game of baseball.”

 

Brassfield takes over the head coaching position after 10 years with the program. He is also a chemistry teacher at the school.

 

He started as an assistant and was with them for several years, then coached the freshmen team for five years. “When the position opened up for head coach I was able to interview and fortunately got the job.”

 

The team Brassfield inherits is one he is familiar with. He coached almost every player on his roster at some point on their road from freshman baseball to the college level.

 

The Thunder look this year to rewrite the recent history of the program. They went 14-15-1 in the regular season last year. Brassfield knows where his team’s strengths are and is confident in his first year to make improvements.

 

“We’re grinders. We’re gonna be working hard. We want to be aggressive on the bases,” Brassfield said. “We want to be blue collar players.”

 

The strength of this squad for the Thunder is their pitching staff. Junior pitchers Brandon Childers, Eli Ankeney and Tyler Magin are the focal point of what Brassfield said is going to be a lethal rotation, aided by some senior leadership in the bullpen.

 

“The strongest thing we do is pitch on the mound,” Brassfield said. “We’ve got really good pitching depth and we’re really excited as a team about this group.”

 

Brassfield is determined to make significant improvements by the end of the season, but his main goal is to "make sure we make a good impression on these high school student athletes.

 

“We will definitely finish better than last year, I can tell you that.”