One look at the stat sheet shows just how much Urbandale baseball has grown since last season.
Just look at sophomore Gabe Blanshan, who leads the team with seven home runs (fifth most in Class 4A) and 33 RBIs as of June 25, along with owning a .321 batting average. In 2025, he had just a .148 batting average, zero home runs and three RBIs. The same goes for J-Hawks’ senior pitcher Tyler Etten, who went from a 2-6 record and 6.07 earned run average in 2025 to a 9-0 mark (most wins in Iowa) and 1.63 ERA so far in his final high school season.
Almost every player on the roster has a similar story. In 2025, Urbandale’s top nine batters carried a .249 batting average. This year, it’s leaped to .299 among their top nine hitters. During the 2025 campaign, those who pitched 10 or more innings had a combined ERA of 4.91, and no pitcher had a season win percentage greater than .500. In 2026, Urbandale’s ERA for pitchers with 10 or more innings is 2.78, with four pitchers owning winning records.
As a result, victories have come in bunches for Urbandale. At 19-7 (.731), this is the J-Hawks’ best winning percentage since 2018, even better than the last time Urbandale won a state championship in 2019 (.689). They’re on track to have their first winning season since 2022 and, if the trend continues, perhaps their first state tournament appearance since 2020.
How have the J-Hawks flipped their fortunes? It’s a senior-laden group that’s driving the change, haunted by past failures and motivated as ever to get Urbandale back to the standard of baseball they are used to playing.
Motivated seniors drive Urbandale baseball to standard it expects
During the first three years the senior class was in the program, the J-Hawks were a combined 47-67. Winning had not been the norm since entering high school, but they had done plenty of it in the past.
Eleven of the 12 seniors grew up playing Little League together. In middle school, they won back-to-back Little League state titles, a testament to their talent. Even so, that didn’t translate once they made it to the high school level.
“We’ve always been like, ‘Oh, we have the talent to be good,” senior Xander Gutmann said. “So everybody goes out there and kind of plays for themselves, plays to hit the home runs. When you do that, it doesn’t put together team wins.”
When the class of 2026 got to high school, they admit, the losses stung after building up high hopes with their success in Little League. However, those setbacks led to where they’re going now.
“That was definitely tough, going from high expectations from Little League to seeing how tough the actual competition is in high school,” Etten said. “But I think we accepted that and we turned up the flame to be like, ‘Yo, we’re gonna come out here this season and we’re going to prove something.'”
Troy Troncin is in his second year as Urbandale’s head coach. One of the key aspects of his philosophy is to have the program be player-led. Rather than dictating every little thing, his staff focuses on letting the athletes take the program in the direction they want to go. With an impassioned drive from the seniors, that was a great starting point to turning things around.
The other key part is the staff’s experience. Three of Troncin’s assistants were a part of the 2018 state championship team at Urbandale. That gives the current student-athletes a prime example of what is required to reach the highest level of Iowa high school baseball.
“They know they can trust our coaches and know this is what they had to do to get to where they needed to be,” Troncin said.
A staff to use as an example and a fire to take advantage of their final season in high school have combined to lead to success for the J-Hawks in 2026.
The senior class has focused on accountability as a part of their player-led approach. Everyone has a role, not just on the field, but also outside of competition. When a game ends, part of the team cleans up the dugout and field while others load the bus, for example. Perhaps their biggest change is in the weight room. If someone misses a lifting session, the senior class decided that player will miss the next game.
From the first game, everyone on the staff and the team saw how the increased accountability and dedicated roles made a difference. They trailed Norwalk early in their first outing, but recorded a three-run home run to rally and win. Eventually, the hot start grew to an 8-0 record before their first loss.
That start inspired belief amongst the team that they could compete with anybody. Facing a perennial power like Johnston last season, the team was quiet in the dugout with very rigid, tense energy and lost all three games against the Dragons. This year, they came with an entirely different attitude that saw them split the series at 1-1 so far.
“Everybody was upbeat and ready to play, and in years past, you could look at the Johnstons and the Waukees and you’re kind of like, ‘Can we compete with them?'” Troncin said. “They kind of knew right from the jump that we could compete with them and we showed that the very first game in that series.”
Accountability, a drive to be great and self-confidence are major parts of a team’s success in any sport and grade level. Behind a player-led approach, Urbandale has been able to rediscover what is possible within its program.
J-Hawk baseball has a strong legacy in Iowa, claiming four state titles and reaching the state tournament 15 times. Each day when the team takes the field at home, they are reminded of that with a banner on the outfield wall celebrating those four titles.
There’s still plenty of baseball to be played this year for Urbandale and many goals the seniors are still seeking, including a state championship. Regardless of how the rest of the year goes, the 2026 senior class has taken a big step to reestablish the J-Hawks’ winning ways for the years to come.
“It’s beyond us at this point,” senior Brayden McCraney said. “It’s an Urbandale community thing. Urbandale’s been a baseball school, we’re gonna continue to lead, to be a baseball school. Us winning and becoming bigger news is going to inspire younger people to stick with baseball and make it all the way here because they know that we’re a winning program and that we can win these state championships.”
Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Urbandale baseball, led by determined seniors, is finding its groove
Reporting by Eli McKown, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By Eli McKown, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
