CHERRY TWP — The last eight seasons have brought unprecedented success to the Moniteau High softball program.

So it's not surprising that the school elected to hand the reins to someone familiar with the Warriors.

Dan Beebe, an assistant with the team from 2007-10, was approved as the new coach at Monday's school board meeting.

He takes over for Dan Hindman, who was named the varsity coach at Butler High last month.

“Over the last four seasons, (Beebe) has helped out tremendously with the Moniteau softball program, not only during the season, but in the offseason as well,” said Hindman.

Hindman never had a losing season with the Warriors. He led the team to District 9 Class AA titles in 2007 and 2008, and coached Moniteau to an 11-7 record last spring.

“(Hindman's) program has been very successful, probably the most successful sports program at Moniteau over the last eight years,” Beebe said. “The players and myself, we're very familiar with the system that is in place.”

Beebe, a 1999 graduate of Moniteau, has had his share of head coaching success.

His Moniteau summer league team has won its league championship the last two years.

“That's the biggest reason for the success we've had here at Moniteau. We basically play year-round,” said Beebe. “One thing I'm hoping to do is get a junior high program started at Moniteau. That would give us a good idea of the talent we have coming before the girls get to high school”

The Warriors lost a good bit of talent from last year's team, including all-KSAC players Ashley Lominski (OF) and Alex Guercio (2B-SS), and three-year starter Megan Yohe (1B).

“We still have a pretty good nucleus coming back,” Beebe said. “That's always been the case at Moniteau.”