It was announced that Maplewood Richmond Heights High School alumnus Jonathan Webb will take over as head coach of the baseball team this spring.

Webb graduated from the high school in 2007. He's currently a senior journalism student at Webster University, St. Louis Rams media relations intern and managing editor of the Webster University student newspaper, The Journal. Webb said he will resign from his position at The Journal at the end of the semester to clear the way for his new coaching post.

"This job opened up at Maplewood and I had no choice but to jump on the opportunity," Webb said. "It's not every day you get the chance to coach your alma mater, so I had to jump all over that."

Webb has been involved in MRH athletics ever since he graduated. Recently he's been the statistician for the Blue Devils football team.

Webb, who lives in Maplewood, played baseball for four years as a student at MRH. He was an assistant coach with MRH's coach Rolando Merriweather for two years following his graduation. He also coached in the St. Louis all-star RBI League, taking teams to tournaments in Minnesota and Arkansas.

Webb said that the team he's about to take over finished last year on a high note by winning eight of their last 12 games. The final loss was to the eventual state champion.

"They have a good deal of talent," Webb said. "And there are some kids here that I worked with through the RBI program, so I'm familiar with them."

"Last year I would say there was a considerable amount of growth from day one to the end of the season," he said. "I'm really looking forward to working with these guys and seeing them continue to grow and be contenders in our South Central Athletic Conference."