The Odessa College baseball team enters the 2025 season with a new head coach for the first time in 10 years.
David Wood, who replaces Kurtis Lay, takes over a Odessa College program that he says will feature a good group of returning players.
“I’m extremely fired up,” Wood said. “This has been a great move for me and my family. The team has been absolutely getting after it. There’s been a buy-in from everybody. We have a great core of sophomores who are leading the charge. We’re excited to get going.”
Odessa College is coming off a 27-28 showing from last year.
“Our strength is definitely the sophomore class,” Wood said. “Our pitching staff has matured a lot over the fall. We have our middle infield with two sophomores and our catcher is a sophomore so we have some older guys who are going to lead the charge. In terms of weaknesses, I would say it’ll be a little of the experience. Some of these sophomores may not have as much experience from their freshman years so it’s about getting through that but other than that, they’re ready to go. I feel good about it.”
Among the standout players coming back include infielder, Alex Bustamante, third baseman Jose Carmona and catcher Diego Alfonso-Rivera.
“Alex Bustamante played a lot at shortstop for us last year,” Wood said. “Diego Alfonso-Rivera had a lot of time at third base. Jose Carmona got a lot of time behind the plate. We’ll have some freshmen that threw a lot last year that have matured a lot and will play a big role for us.”
Wood takes over having previously served as the interim coach at San Jacinto College for the 2024 season where he guided the Ravens to a 40-21 record.
Before that, he was the head coach at St. Thomas, leading the Celts to their first SCAC Baseball Tournament appearance in 2022 and led the school to their best record in 2023 at 20-18.
At Odessa College, he’s excited about the potential that the Wranglers have who produced successful players including most recently Ivan Melendez who is currently playing Minor League ball with the Amarillo Sod Poodles.
Wood also knows that at a school where every other sport seems to dominate, no less is expected of the baseball team.
“I think Kurtis Lay did a phenomenal job here,” Wood said. “He really set the bar for this place and for a school that wins in all sports, the bar is high. We have to be willing to answer that bell but the expectation is to be in the national stage and with the things the school has done for our program with the new field and the complex upgrades, the sky’s the limit. We’re going to make a lot more noise.”
Wood liked what he saw from his players during the fall offseason.
“The build-up in the fall has been great,” Wood said. “You have all the time to scrimmage and then the five-week layoff for Christmas break. You start to get a little anxious and excited and the guys from Day one have been ready to go. There’s been a lot of high-energy.”
Odessa College will begin its season in a tournament in San Marcos on Jan. 25 against Wharton County Junior College.
“It’s going to be a lot of moving parts,” Wood said of what he expects to see in the first couple of weeks of the season. “We want to see who’s going to take a spot and not give it back. You want to see guys that aren’t’ afraid of failure and that don’t look like they’re walking on egg shells. You want to have guys that are on the throttle that you need to pull back sometimes instead of kicking in the tail. On the mound, we just need to fill it up. I want to see who has no fear of the opponent and maybe willing to give up a home run here and there but doesn’t shy away from the next hitter on the lineup.”
The Wranglers’ first home game won’t be until noon Feb. 14 against Seward County Community College.
Odessa College will begin Western Junior College Athletic Conference play against Midland College March 7 at home.
“The conference is getting stronger and stronger,” Wood said. “The region is probably the top three in the nation. A team that comes out of here has a chance to win the World Series and the fact that only one team comes out of this region can be tough. But that’s our goal. As a first year head coach, it’ll be tough. Midland College is tough. NMMI is talented. New Mexico Junior College is extremely talented. It’s all in front of us. Our job is to get to regionals and make some noise.”
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