Shane Leatherwood has been named Clovis High's new baseball coach. Shane Leatherwood has bee

Editor's note: This article appeared in print July 1.

Shane Leatherwood has been named Clovis High's new baseball coach.

Leatherwood, a 1998 CHS grad, was offered and accepted the job on Tuesday. He replaces Drew Hatley, who resigned in mid-May after one season at the helm.

From 2006-10, Leatherwood coached in the Lady Wildcats' soccer program, the last four seasons as head coach. He also served from 2003-07 as an assistant coach in baseball under Shane Shallenberger.

"Baseball's all I really ever wanted to do," Leatherwood said. "I had to get out of it (before) for personal reasons, but the opportunity happened to present itself now and I took it."

Leatherwood said he has not yet signed a contract for the baseball position, but Clovis superintendent Terry Myers confirmed the hiring on Saturday.

"We're confident Shane is going to do a good job," Myers said. "He brings us some maturity to the job, and we're hoping he'll do a good job."

Leatherwood, a math teacher at CHS, played baseball for the Wildcats and continued his career at College of the Southwest (now University of the Southwest) in Hobbs. He played three seasons for the Mustangs before two ACL surgeries ended his playing career.

The Cats went 10-17 in 2012, losing 2-0 in a best-of-three, round-of-16 series to La Cueva in the Class 5A state playoffs.

Leatherwood said he expects to inherit an inexperienced squad.

"They graduated a lot of seniors," he said. "With (senior outfielder-pitcher) Tyler Greene moving (his father was transferred from Cannon AFB to a base in Illinois), I think we'll only have four returnees on the varsity."

Myers said 17 candidates applied for the position, including several from within the system, and six were interviewed.