The Kansas City Chiefs aren’t the only team going to a three-peat in 2025, as the Iola Mustangs returned to the diamond this week looking for a third consecutive Pioneer League championship.
Coaches and players braved the lingering winter weather this week looking to add a few more pieces to their already deadly arsenal of athletes and further cement Iola as the team to beat in the Pioneer League and beyond. 
“It’s fun playing with a target on your back. There are high expectations,” Iola coach Levi Ashmore said. “You go out every day expecting to win every game you see on your schedule. You know you’re going to get everybody’s best shot, so it takes our best every single day we go out.”
For many Mustangs in attendance Thursday, the return to the diamond seemed a dramatic shift. Only a day before, seniors Jordy Kaufman, Grady Dougherty and were playing for a chance at the sub-state basketball finals against Caney Valley. Last weekend, sophomore Kale Pratt competed for a state title in the 157-pound weight class. Now, they’re honing an entirely different set of skills in a batting cage or a pitcher’s mound.
“We like watching our kids be athletes and play (other sports), but we’re ready for them when it comes to baseball season,” Ashmore said. “To watch them go from straight from playing basketball or wrestling out here on the baseball field and hearing the ball hit the glove or the bat, seeing their energy toward something new. It’s exciting.”
Despite transitioning from baseball to basketball, during batting practice Dougherty worked with an underclassman on techniques to improve bat speed. Although he retired one year before Dougherty joined the IHS squad, that player-coach mentality among upperclassmen may stem from former IHS coach Mark Percy. Similar to the adage of a farmer not spending too much time in the field with the cattle, rising in the IHS baseball program comes with responsibilities.
“We’re fortunately in a place here in Iola, where baseball has been good for the past 10 or 15 years. We’ve had a lot of great players come through,” Ashmore said. “Coach Mark Percy was here from 2005 to 2020, and laid a great foundation for me and all of my teammates and the guys who came between now and then as players. I’ve been fortunate to step in and lead the program. We have a lot of good players today. The culture is good for Iola Baseball.”
As for the current Mustangs, based on the returning varsity players and what he saw from the 2024 junior varsity, he has a strong feeling about his starting lineup, However, he will play with the lineup during next week’s jamboree to see which players’ skills compliment another’s in order to put out the best combination each game.
“Next Thursday in going to come really fast. We’re playing two good teams in Pittsburg and Girard. They’re not slouches,” Ashmore said. “We want to be as sharp as we can be and make the most out of every rep. We’re taking about 15 guys and we’re only playing about 12 innings total.”
