BUTLER TWP — Cody Herald is preparing for the future while enjoying the present.

The Butler graduate is in his first season as head coach of the Golden Tornado’s boys ninth grade basketball team and will soon start a student teaching assignment at McKeesport or Butler.

Herald, who turns 23 Friday, also re-signed with the Frontier League’s Washington Wild Things and will continue his baseball career there this spring.Herald hit over .300 all four years as an outfielder at Seton Hill University and had a successful two-year stint with the Butler BlueSox.

“I’m grateful to still have the opportunity to play a child’s game at a professional level,” he said. “Most guys never get the opportunity to do this.

“You’re always hopeful this leads to something bigger. But if it doesn’t, you need something to fall back on.”

For Herald, that’s coaching and teaching.

He wants to be an elementary school teacher. His Butler freshmen are 9-2 so far this season and he will serve as an assistant coach in some capacity with Butler baseball as well.

“I love it,” he said of coaching basketball. “We just beat North Allegheny by a point on a buzzer-beater the other night. It was fantastic.

“I had been away from basketball for years and I missed it. Baseball is still my first love ... when I can’t play these sports anymore, I want to coach them. I can’t let it go.”

Butler boys basketball coach Matt Clement coached Herald in high school. Clement approached him about the possibility of joining his staff.

“If he was available, I wanted him,” Clement said. “Cody has been an awesome addition. My goal has always been to bring back guys I’ve coached here to help me coach here.

“Nate (Snodgrass), Bobby (Swartwout), I’d love to eventually bring them back, too, if that was to work out. I told Cody not to give up his dream for this, but if he can do both, why not?”

Herald hit .256 in 43 at bats over 17 games with the Wild Things last year. He wasn’t signed by the team until the second half of the season.

Former field manager and new Wild Things vice president Bob Bozzuto said Herald was given limited at bats last season to maintain his “rookie 1” status for this year.

“If a player has fewer than 50 at bats in the league, he is considered at the rookie 1 level,” Bozzuto explained. “There are rookie 1, rookie 2 and veteran players. A Frontier League team can only keep 13 veteran players.

“We keep a 24-man roster and will have 35 players in camp. Cody’s rookie 1 level will help him stick here. This is professional baseball. Players get injured, signed by other clubs, released ... A lot can happen to impact our roster.”

Herald struck out 19 times in his 43 at bats last season, walking only twice. His walks have habitually exceeded his strikeouts most of his playing career.

“Cody has been in the lineup every day on every team he’s played for,” Bozzuto said. “Last year, he saw limited at bats spread out over a long time. And he had to adjust to professional pitching. That was no easy task.”

Herald acknowledged as much.

“It was tough getting into a rhythm at the plate,” he admitted. “But just being on the bench, around a professional team for so long, I was able to adjust by taking mental notes. I’ll be much better prepared this year.”

Herald will used as an infielder, outfielder, maybe even a pitcher for an inning or two, Bozzuto said.

“He’s a talented, versatile baseball player and we’ll use that,” he said.

That suits Herald just fine.

“I never pitched in college, but if I take the mound (for the Wild Things), I’m going to want to get people out. That’s the competitiveness in me,” Herald said.

It’s that same competitiveness that Clement welcomes on to his basketball staff.

“Cody is all about Butler. He wanted to play for Butler and he wants to help Butler,” Clement said. “He’s a great role model for our kids.

“Once he signed on with us, he came to all of the open gyms, he helps out with the junior varsity whenever he can, he sits on the bench and helps me during the varsity games — he is all in.”