On May 25, Washington University baseball coach Ric Lessmann announced his immediate retirement, ending a 46-year coaching career. The announcement set off a national search to replace Lessmann, and on July 13, Steve Duncan was named to the position.

For the past three years, Duncan served as the assistant baseball coach for Johns Hopkins University, helping the team to a 114-31 (.786) record and two Division III College World Series berths. He also was an assistant coach at Biola University for one season. Student Life sat down with Duncan to discuss his old jobs, new job and the future of Bears baseball.

Student Life: What was the hiring process like?

Steve Duncan: To me, Washington University was the school to be at—unbelievable reputation, in a great city, and with a baseball program that has tons of unrealized potential to be on the same level, eventually, as the other programs within this athletic department that have been so successful over the years. So for me, when I was looking to get a head coaching position, this was the number one job open. I applied for other jobs, but in the back of my mind, this was the one I was really hoping was going to work out. When I found out I was chosen for an interview, I was ecstatic, and to be offered the job was just quite an honor and exactly what I was looking for.

SL: This will be your first head coaching opportunity. How excited are you?

SD: I think it’s the perfect opportunity. I think the table is set for success here. With some hard work, this program could just take off. It’s already a good program: They’ve had some success over the past few years, a lot of returning players…who are willing to work really hard and who want to succeed. That’s why I feel like there’s so much potential; I’ve got that core group of players. And yes, I’m going to recruit endlessly, and we’re going to get some of the top high school talent available into this program, and I’m excited to see the fruits of that over the next few years, but I’m also, at the same time, really excited about this season because I think the players we’ve got in the program this year are ready to win, work hard, and ready to reap to rewards of that.

SL: Specifically, what about your previous experiences at Johns Hopkins University will help you bring success to Wash. U.?

SD: Honestly, I think part of it is expectation level. Coming from Hopkins and from Biola, my expectation is to make it to the World Series and certainly make it to the NCAA Regionals every year, and I think that’s a reasonable expectation. I don’t think, for this specific program, it’s too lofty of a goal. Part of it is just setting that expectation. In a lot of ways, you only achieve what you aim for, so here, we will be aiming for the NCAA tournament.

SL: What is the current state of Wash. U. baseball?

SD: The state of Washington University baseball, to me, speaking of the upcoming season, is: a lot of returning players, a lot of talented returning players, we’ve got a lot of freshmen coming in this year. It remains to be seen how many of those can contribute, but there are a lot of guys. I think [the program] is summed up best by having tons of potential, and it’s my job to help our players realize that potential. That’s what I’m excited about. This is not a rebuilding program. This is a program that’s, in my eyes, ready to take off for the next level.

SL: What are your immediate plans for the program?

SD: We do have a fall practice season of five weeks, where we’ll be playing a lot of inter-squad scrimmages. The point of those is to evaluate what we do have and try to start to determine roles for the spring, so come January, when we start with our pre-season, we’ll have an idea of who is going to fill what role and what the core of the team is going to look like. That’s the point of the fall…and I think it will really help us determine what we have.

SL: Where do you see the program five years from now?

SD: I’m not going to make any promises because a lot of that is outside of my control. It takes a lot of luck to get to the World Series; what I would like to do is have our team in position to compete for that every single year. If we work hard and we have the right players and I do my job, we should have a chance every year. That’s really all you can ask for in baseball…there are no guarantees in baseball, but I would say even sooner than that, I would expect to be at the level where we’re competing nationally.