Farnworth returns to take over Carson baseball

BY DARRELL MOODY

Appeal Sports Writer

The name Farnworth has been synonymous with Carson High School baseball for many years. Ron Farnworth was an assistant coach for Ron McNutt for many years, and his three sons, Dave, Lane and Cody all attended Carson.

Cody Farnworth, a 1990 CHS graduate, was named the Senators' new baseball coach Thursday by athletic director Bob Bateman.

Farnworth replaces Steve Cook, who resigned after last season.

Farnworth returned to Carson after teaching and coaching football at Pueblo West High School. He was at Pueblo from 2004 to 2007. He is teaching science at Carson.

"It felt right to come back," Farnworth said. "At the time I was coming back to help Cookie and then (the job) opened up."

Bateman liked the fact that Farnworth was a former Carson player. He was happy to have found a coach from within the district.

"Cody had playing experience at Mesa State (as a pitcher) and he had assisted coach (Ron) McNutt at Carson before," Bateman said. "Being an ex-resident and student-athlete, he had a very clear understanding of the community, past and present.

"He had a strong desire to want to come back here. It's a little different teaching and coaching in a one high school town. Having been here for a large portion of his life, he's in touch with what needs to be done."

One of Farnworth's biggest fans is McNutt, also a former CHS athletic director.

"I'm happy for Cody," said McNutt, who took over the head job at Galena and will lock horns with his former player twice this year. "He has a good demeanor to work with kids and a passion for athletics. I think he'll do an outstanding job."

Farnworth's first order of business is to assemble a coaching staff. He's already talked to some potential candidates. One person he's interested in is Scott Albin, who was the Carson pitching coach last year and also coached Carson's summer team.

After that, it's time to meet with the players. Farnworth spent a little time working with the team during the summer and he has a pretty good knowledge of what type of team he could have.

"We have some talent," Farnworth said. "I like fundamentals, and we have to get back to that. If we can't defend or pitch, we're in trouble. We have to develop pitching. We have kids that can swing it. That's the part everybody likes. I'm going to stress that we have to be able to play defense. We can manufacture runs.

"I'm going to be meeting the returning varsity players one on one and let them know the expectations I have for them if they aren't playing another sport right now."

Farnworth said he doesn't know the junior varsity players or incoming freshman, but he plans to rectify that as soon as possible.

One of the things that impressed Bateman was Farnworth's desire to increase the numbers in baseball " not only at CHS, but at the youth level. Both Carson Little League and Babe Ruth are facing dwindling numbers.

"I'd like to pump up Little League and Babe Ruth again," Farnworth said. "We all played together and that's why we were successful. I don't know anything about the traveling teams. In Babe Ruth we played together and had numbers. We've got to get the numbers up."

Farnworth said he wants to talk to representatives from both leagues to see how his high school program can help out.

That's one of the things that indicated to McNutt that Farnworth might make a good coach someday.

"Sometimes it's how players react," McNutt said. "When we had Little League clinics and worked with kids " that's how you see how (coaches) relate to young kids. Cody was one that really worked hard to teach and work with them."

- Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or (775) 881-1281