The Kansas high school baseball season kicks off on Mar. 19, opening day for regular season action under KSHSAA regulations. Leading up to opening day, we’ll be publishing our team previews ahead of the 2026 spring season, touching on programs spanning all state classifications, counting down to the official Prep Baseball Kansas Preseason Power 25 Rankings.

Perennially, we’ve submitted a preseason questionnaire to high school head coaches across the entire state. Their responses have been flooding in and we’re using the detailed insight they’ve provided in our team-by-team preseason analysis.

Our 2026 preseason coverage continues today.

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2026 SEASON OUTLOOK

No. of Returning Position Players: 7
No. of Returning Pitchers: 5

Top Returners:

• Cooper Watkins (2026) - P/1B, R/R
  • 3A Pitcher of the Year. 11-1, 106 Ks, 2.11 ERA
• Corbin Mayer (2027) - P/IF, R/R
  • .609 OBP, 26SB in the leadoff, 10-1, 2.71 ERA
• Brody Thelen (2026) -  P/IF, R/R
  • .298, 31 RBI, 2-0, 2.74 ERA
    

Top Newcomers:

• Cooper Knox (2028) - P/IF, R/R
  • Played half of our games last year as a Freshman and hit .300.

Key Players Lost:

• Drew Beilman 
• Tucker Holthaus

Coach’s Insight: “Experience will be an asset to this year's team as we bring back seven returning starters from a year ago, with a few others that saw significant playing time. If we can find guys to step up in the vacancies of CF and SS and build pitching depth early in the season, it could be a special year at Jefferson West.” – Terry Stueve, head coach

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Find more information on the 2026 Jefferson West program below:

+ Visit Prep Baseball Kansas’ 2026 KSHSAA Team Previews page to learn more.

+ If you are a high school coach and didn’t receive our questionnaire, please click HERE to fill out the form

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