Baseball: Taft hires Pony coach

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Scott Osder, a long-time coach at West Hills Pony baseball, has been selected the new baseball coach at Taft. He replaces Chuck Berrington, who guided the Toreadors to their first playoff berth in 10 years before resigning to take over at Newbury Park.

He was selected by a committee that included two players, a parent, a teacher and two coaches.

‘We all felt he was the best candidate,’ Principal Sharon Thomas said. ‘He’s a brilliant man.’

Osder has never coached at the high school level other than spending two months last fall helping coach at Harvard-Westlake.

Bob Kodama, who has coached for more than 30 years at West Hills and whose son, Matt, was on the Taft committe, said of Osder, ‘I was very impressed with him. He’s got his fundamentals down.’

-- Eric Sondheimer