It was just five months ago that the Winona State baseball team underwent quite the transition after the previous coach, Kyle Poock, retired. In July, Seth Wing, a Winona State alumnus, officially took over the team as the new head coach.  

With memorable ties to Warrior baseball history, Wing earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Winona State and played both football and baseball between 1999 and 2003. From 2003 to 2011, Wing gained eight years of collegiate coaching experience as an assistant baseball coach. 

During his time on the coaching staff, Winona State won the NSIC Tournament in 2007 and earned NCAA Division II regional positions in 2007, 2010 and 2011. It was in his final three seasons that Wing was a part of the program’s most successful campaign, assisting the team in their advance to the NCAA Division II World Series, earning a runner-up spot just behind West Florida in the championship game. 

Though, in 2011, Wing left Winona for Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa where he served as the head baseball coach and athletic director for nearly eleven years. 

It was there that Wing racked up 176 victories with his teams and posted a winning Midwest Conference South Division record in six seasons. His 2019 squad finished just one win short of the best Cornell season win tally to date. 

Nonetheless, Winona State was fortunate to successfully coax Coach Wing back to the Warriors. 

“I’ve been thinking about this job since I left,” Wing said. “Over 20 years ago, I was a student here, and I just can’t believe that I’m now the head baseball coach. It was just a dream come true.” 

Perhaps it had not taken much persuading after all. Wing had left Winona State with the same appreciation he returned with. 

Wing had even gotten his first cell phone in Winona, and after eleven long years in another state, the number remained the same, simply because he knew he would make his much-anticipated return.  

Wing recalled the good place he and his family were in at Cornell. Consistently busy as athletic director and head baseball coach, his time was consumed by several different things at a time. While they were certainly happy, exhaustion began to invade several aspects of his life, stirring the need for change.  

As a result, Wing chose to return to Winona to chase the dream he had left behind. 

Wing was welcomed back eagerly by both the athletic program and the team he took over.  

“Coach Wing does a great job of really bringing energy and organization,” Cooper Kapanke, a fourth-year from Eau Claire, Wis., said. “He really wants to make Winona State that top university in the conference again.”  

Wing certainly considers the NCAA tournament a significant goal for his team, but he knows that they can only be conference champions with a focused mentality, taking it one game at a time.  

Though, winning is not the only thing on his mind. Wing has a significant goal to keep the team’s camaraderie and brotherhood through genuine and strong relationships between his athletes and himself.  

Change is a significant factor in Wing’s story so far, but it does not stop at his return to Winona State.  

Wing has also acknowledged some significant differences in the Warriors he has come to know compared to the players he had coached at Cornell. 

“The players here are a little bit more in tune with what their capabilities are and a have a little better understanding of their approach to the game,” Wing said. “I think they’ve studied the game a little bit more than the guys I had at Cornell.” 

Wing also mentioned the struggle to recruit players that would commit to the team at Cornell, an effort that requires a lot of time and energy. At Winona State, Wing found that it took a much less significant volume of recruited men to obtain the desired number of players for the team. 

Overall, Wing’s new position as head coach brings with it a very bright and promising future for Warrior baseball. Thus, when the weather shifts and the baseball season kicks into gear, Wing’s legacy on the Warrior field resumes.