Newest baseball coach brings passion to diamond, classroom

The last time Omaha Central Baseball has won a state championship was back in 1939. Central baseball has been determined to win another championship one day once again. A good baseball team needs strength and conditioning in order to be more explosive, quicker and stronger on the baseball diamond. Getting better on the diamond also means getting better in the weight room.

New to Central, Corban Williams is an economics teacher who attended Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo. After graduating, he came back to Omaha where he was born and raised and eventually landed a student teaching position at Benson High School last year.

Williams applied for the position of an economics teacher at Central after student teaching because he thought the school would be a good fit. “The staff and the atmosphere, the pride of being an eagle sold me on being the place I wanted to go,” Williams said.

He’s has been around baseball since his freshman year of high school and continued it into college where he also played at Truman State.

After becoming a teacher at Central, Williams was interested on helping out with the baseball program. He told head coach Gerald Kreber that he would be interested on helping out with the student athletes. He was given the position for the fall as the weight training and conditioning coach and also a coach on the field for fall baseball as a result.

His passion about baseball and about helping the athletes become stronger is what drove Williams to wanting to become a baseball coach. Although he is not guaranteed a spot at the moment for a spring and summer baseball coach, he said “If they have a position for me I’ll love to coach the spring and summer.” He also would enjoy continuing to coach and help out with the baseball program for the coming years.

The main goal for the off-season weight training baseball program is to “help players become the best that they can possibly be” said Williams.

Many baseball athletes that attend the program tend to agree that he does help achieve the goal. “I really like how coach Williams runs it, it’s more intense and it makes all of us work hard,” senior Collin Lefeber said.

Sophomore Isaac Bonner also agrees and likes the new setup of the program. “It’s more of a program now, it’s more setup than last years. I think with coach Williams running the program its a lot more beneficial to a lot of the players, and we have all gotten stronger since the beginning of weight training this year.”

Williams has offered a more scheduled and beneficial weight training program since joining the program. He obtained the program and some ideas for it from some friends he had when he attended college. One of his friends that the he obtained the program from coached him and now is the strength coach at Lindenwood University near St. Louis. He shared some of the workouts with him and Williams modified them to best suit his own athletes.

The program Williams received and applies to the workouts is called a hypertrophy strength phase along with conditioning afterwards.The hypertrophy strength phase helps increase in the cross sectional area of muscle and an increase in the storage capacity of high energy substrates and enzymes. “The program is mainly focused on core and lower body and will help with explosiveness and hopefully injury prevention,” said Williams.

Williams still thinks believes still areas for development with the weight training program and with the athletes. “There’s always room for improvement, we can better utilize the equipment we’re given and work with the guys more individually.” Williams also adds that if athletes would like to get better they can eat healthy and take care of their bodies. “If they want to improve it’s about filling the body with proper foods to help yourself and getting stronger in the weight room.”

Williams is positive that the program is helping the athletes improve and is moving in the right direction. “The kids’ progress has been phenomenal. They’ve been doing things now that they thought they’d never be able to do. Most importantly, just the progress has been really cool to see with some of these kids.”