KARNS CITY — Karns City is looking for a baseball coach — again.

Travis Twentier guided the Gremlins to the District 9 Class AA championship game in his only season as head coach last year. He had to resign after taking a full-time job with USIS in Grove City.

“My hours will fluctuate too much for me to be able to keep coaching the team,” Twentier said. “It's tough.”

Karns City will have its fifth head baseball coach in eight years and has a short window to find one as spring sports practice begins March 7.

Twentier had been the Gremlins' eighth-grade basketball coach as well, but was unable to fill that role this season. Athletic director Tom Wagner handled those duties on an interim basis.

“We were hopeful Travis could work out his schedule by spring to keep the baseball job,” Wagner said. “That's why I stepped in with the basketball: to buy him some time. But it couldn't be worked out.”

Karns City baseball has three paid coaching positions: varsity coach, assistant and junior varsity. Three coaches worked under Twentier last year, with two of them splitting the assistant's position.

Those three coaches were Randy Collins, Terry Stiehler and Dave Summerville.

“Two of my assistants are applying for the head coaching job,” Twentier said. “Karns City wouldn't be going in the wrong direction with either one.”

The Gremlins' last three head baseball coaches, Twentier, Tom Stewart and Rocky Brown, were promoted from within.

The current opening was only posted Monday.

“We had to wait two weeks, until the next board meeting, to make it official,” Wagner said. “That definitely puts us in a bit of a scramble, but we'll make it work.”

Despite the coaching turnover, Karns City baseball has had only one losing season in the last decade: a 9-11 record in 2007.

Dave McElroy was 73-16 in five years as head coach before the program's coaching carousel began.

“We've had guys leave for family reasons, employment — never because of a problem with the baseball team or the school,” Wagner said.

Twentier is hopeful of coaching some level of baseball, Little League or otherwise, this summer.

“I'd love to get back into high school coaching, as a head coach or assistant somewhere, in another year or two,” he said.

“These kids keep winning year after year because of their work ethic and the tradition that's there,” Twentier added. “From elementary school on, they've seen Karns City win consistently in a lot of sports. Regardless of the coach, those kids know what it takes to be successful.”