With every new year brings a fresh late. In the junior college baseball season, it's a 50-plus game opportunity to try to go 1-0 every day, to win the day, to pluck out whatever cliché a coach needs to throw in to make a team ready on the first day of the season.

Some teams don't need superficial superlatives. West Valley is one of them. The only school to reach the 3C2A State Final in each of the last two seasons now enters the 2026 season with an opportunity to be the first school since Riverside Community College from 2000-2002 to reach the state final for three straight years.

Head coach Bobby Hill and his developmental staff have made nothing short of magic in the last two seasons. In just two seasons, 11 student-athletes have graduated from West Valley and transferred to continue their academic and athletic careers at the four-year level. Last season, Viking ace Nico Wagner was drafted in the 16^th round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Atlanta Braves.

Last season, the Vikings one-upped a record-setting 2024 season by winning a pair of games, both against Cypress College, in the 3C2A State Finals before bowing out to the eventual champions, Mt. San Antonio College. Even while losing a large part of the 2025 roster, Coach Hill is ready for a new season.

"Optimistic," said Hill when asked about the excitement of the team. "Every year we have a different team, different personalities, different culture. That's what the fall is for -- it's how we prep ourselves to get ready for the season. But I'm very optimistic. It's a different type of team than what I'm used to having -- and I don't mean that in a bad way, in a good way. We pieced this team together with a little bit more speed, a little bit more pieces that we felt would help us get through this upcoming this season. We have a mixture of youth, returners and four-year kickbacks. So we have a mix of everything."

Two big returners figure to lead the charge offensively, with preseason All-American infielder David Estrada and reigning Coast Conference 2^nd team outfielder Eric Altmark back as incumbents for the 2026 season.

Estrada, who hit .405 with a single-season record 29 doubles, should slot right back into the Vikings' leadoff spot in the lineup. He's no stranger to big time competition as well. In his first at bat of the 3C2A State Final, Estrada hit a leadoff home run in what ended up as a one-run victory over Cypress.

"David's been David," Hill said. "He's the same David we had last year. Upbeat, he's one of our leaders. A quiet leader. We can't expect him to have the same offensive output that he put last year in, because some of the things he did last year are just unheard of. But he still showed signs this fall of being the same David we had last year. So if he can stay consistent, stay true to himself and not try to get too big or do too much -- the hardest thing as a sophomore is he did the hardest part: being a committed player. Sometimes going into a season uncommitted puts some pressure on you, but now, he can just go compete."

Altmark will also step into the forefront of the Vikings' lineup after opening last season on the bench but playing his way into a spot right in the heart of West Valley's order. He finished last season hitting .376 with a .503 on-base percentage.

Other offensive returners include Jordan Montez, who bopped six home runs last season, starting catcher Andrew Bonfigli and everyday second baseman Kenji Colston.

"I love offense, I'm big on it," said Hill. "I want to have good at bats, be aggressive offensively, but aggression within the strike zone. We showed signs during the fall of the lineup, and piecing this thing together, but now that we actually have a starting nine, knowing who's on the bench and who's off the bench and who can do what makes my job a little bit easier. Now the offense just has to go. We hope it starts with David, and guys like Eric Altmark, and they help the young pups in the lineup, or guys with less experience at this level. Surrounding those guys with those two -- Altmark and Estrada -- it's big."

Another player who should step into a huge spot, and potentially replace the power and on-base presence of Colin Spear (who transferred to the University of the Pacific) is outfielder Joey Damelio. The right-handed hitting outfielder spent last season at Pepperdine University and hit four home runs along with winning West Coast Conference Freshman of the Week after going 4-for-5 with a home run against Santa Clara. For Hill, the bond goes beyond just what Damelio has shown this fall.

"I wanted him out of high school," said Hill, "but he chose Pepperdine, can't blame him. I've known Joey for a while, [he played for us on pitching coach Darold Brown's] scout teams, so we're very familiar with him. He would come over and hit with us a lot, even when we were at Mission College and last year in the summertime. We're very familiar with him. He's a good one. And he's kind of flying a little bit under the radar, because no one really knows too much about him. But he can flat-out hit. I'm excited for him, but he's been very professional and extremely mature with handling himself here and being here."

On the mound, top-of-the-rotation starter Julian Ito returns after a superb freshman year. The 6-foot-1 right hander won seven games with a 2.72 ERA last season. Of his list of highlights includes a seven-inning, two-run performance against Fresno City College to send West Valley to the state championship.

"Today we just announced [Ito] will be our opening day starter," said Hill, "and we made that call a little while ago. Expect the same thing from him. Coming in, hopefully with maturity, poise. He had a lot of big innings for us last year, so it's not like he's new to it. We threw him in the fire against some pretty tough opponents as a freshman, and he excelled. He's going to get that ball, he's going to give us some big innings and we expect big things from him this year."

With losing Wagner and University of San Franciso transfer Adrian Valdez, it could be easy to write of the Vikings' pitching staff at the start of a new season. But West Valley still returns 6-foot-8 sophomore Bryce Berry, who mostly came out of the bullpen, and brings in 6-foot-8 freshman Quincy Winkler from Cal Poly.

"Bryce Berry -- he came out of the bullpen for us last year -- is another tall righty, he's big," said Hill. "My pitching staff is huge. Quincy Winkler also, who is coming from Cal Poly, we expect big things from him. It really starts with Ito, with Berry, and even a guy like Sage Romero, a returning guy. Sebastian Buller. Some of my returning sophomores this year that were freshmen last year, they know what it takes. They got the taste of it last year. Bittersweet end, but I'm excited for what we have on the mound. It's going to be fun to watch those guys go compete."

Buller and Romero are both local products, playing their prep ball at nearby Los Gatos High School, and have made big contributions in their Viking careers. Romero appeared in 17 games last season out of the bullpen while Buller, who has fought injuries over parts of two seasons at West Valley, threw four huge innings in the state finals last season.

"We're excited about right-handed pitcher Apolo Lapiz," said Hill. "Apolo is coming from Bellarmine High School. I've known Apolo since he was about 11 years old, 12 years old, and just watching this kid grow, watching him excel at the high school level when he was just a kid that no one expected to do what he's doing right now, I think he's going to be a really big part of our pitching staff as a freshman. He's got a little bit of that old-school mentality which has kind of gone out of the door a bit now. He's kind of an old soul. You can get on him, he's not going to break, he just enjoys being out there and learning. Apolo is going to do some good things for us this year as well."

In the back end of the bullpen, Berkeley High product Antonio Nordman is still working his way back from an injury but has the talent to become one of the states' top relief arms when 100-percent healthy. In his collegiate debut, he shut the door over 1.1 innings against American River, striking out three Beavers in the process.

"Antonio was a big arm for us last year. Having someone like Antonio, if we had him during that stretch [late in the season], it could have been the difference-maker. But he's doing well, he's coming off this surgery and he's gearing up to pitch and he should be ready to go by mid-February or right before conference starts, and he's right on schedule. He's been going out there with no setbacks, velocity is scaling. It just keeps climbing. Almost to a point where we're like 'Yo, back off,' and he's like 'I'm only at 70%,' and we're like 'that's 70%?' It's a great sign. That boosts our bullpen too."

Schedule-wise, it's another difficult non-conference slate for the Vikings before starting conference play in one of the best in California. West Valley opens its season with American River, which just reached its first playoff appearance since the early-2000's. Next Tuesday, the Vikings will play Santa Rosa, a perennial championship contender.

"The schedule I have is not easy," Hill said. "I'm going into my 11^th year and I won't change the way I go about it. I want to play the best before conference play. I look at it as: RPI is what gets you in the playoffs, wins get you in the playoffs, but also I want to play the best. I want to play guys that want to compete. If we're in the right position, we're going to be in the playoffs, hopefully, that's our goal every year. It's to try to win conference and go deep in the playoffs, to be a final four team, to win a state championship. In order to do that, I want to play the best. We're going to play them eventually if we get that far. I'm not going to run from it, I'm not going to hide from it. The teams we play know it, and I think that's why they schedule us, too."

Still, Coach Hill and his staff recognize the difficulty that comes with opening a season with opponents of this caliber.

"Is it going to be easy? Not even a little bit," said Hill. "It's funny, because the coaches and I were talking about it yesterday, and they said 'do you think these guys are ready?' and I said 'I don't know if they're ready, but they're going to be thrown in the lion's den here in the next 48 hours,' so we're about to find out. It starts Friday with American River. They're a very talented team, too. They're coming from the Big 8 conference. Everybody knows the Big 8 is the powerhouse, and we get them for the first two and then Tuesday, Santa Rosa. So it's like, 'here we go boys', it's not going to be an easy cake walk. But once again, I don't want my teams to feel like we can go beat anybody and beat peoples' brains in, and feel good about ourselves. I want to go compete, and play tight games, have adversity early. Because you need that in conference play."

With Ito on the bump, Estrada, Altmark and the young pups in the lineup and a loaded bullpen, there's a lot to be excited for in the upcoming season. But even for a team with championship aspirations, you still look to those clichés: to the opportunities to win every day and start a season 1-0. The Vikings have a chance to do that on Friday at 1 p.m. against the American River College Beavers. And for Hill, the message is simple.

"We'll lace 'em up on Friday, and we're going to get after it."