WENDELL - After four years of head coaching and 11 years involved in East Wake baseball, Kerry Kincaid announced last Friday he was stepping away from the Warrior diamond.

Warrior baseball was progressive on several fronts during the four years Kincaid served as varsity coach. East Wake went 42-50 over that time and 13-9 in his final season. The Warriors made the state playoffs two of the four years, while recording runner-up finishes in the Bobby Murray Invitational in each of the last three seasons.

The East Wake program also redefined its appearance during Kincaid’s tenure with a major overhaul of the field and complex that remains ongoing today.

“That was certainly one of the highlights in my book,” Kincaid said of the improvements, crediting Brinkley Wagstaff for getting the ball rolling with the Friends of Baseball group that backs such projects. “The efforts of parents and good people donating time and money made my job easy. I just had to worry about baseball.”

He also said coaching at the school led to a quality baseball opportunity at USA Baseball in Cary thanks to East Wake assistant coach Chris Duty.

“Thanks to him I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the most talented youth in the nation,” Kincaid said of Duty. “He’s helped me in so many ways at East Wake and USA. He is a great friend to me.”

Kincaid made the decision to resign from all aspects of the East Wake program due to a decrease in personnel and an increase in his professional responsibilities at N.C. State University, where he has worked with the nuclear reactor program for 21 years. He informed Athletic Director Jonathan Hasbrouck of his decision on Friday, Jan. 13.

“I don’t know what kind of impact I had, but I hope East Wake will strive to continue to get better,” Kincaid said. “[I’ve had] the opportunity to meet a bunch of good kids in our area and see some come in from before they were even high school kids and see them go through the program. I’ve enjoyed being a part of it.”

Hasbrouck said Kincaid was appreciated in all the positions he held over the 11 years with the program.

“We wish him well,” Hasbrouck said. “We know it was a tough decision for him with his job at N.C. State. It was just best for him to step down at this time.”

Kincaid said the fact he didn’t work at East Wake made his coaching job difficult at times. He said the baseball team needs a coach on campus to encourage the players throughout the day — not just at game time.

Hasbrouck said that would be ideal, but said all candidates for the head coaching position will be considered equally.

“Of course we would like someone on campus to be a part of our coaching staff, but in the past that hasn’t been feasible,” he said. “We will post the head coaching position and are in the process now of looking at all the candidates that show interest. Hopefully we will have someone in place in the near future.”

Kincaid first began helping out with the high school team in the 2001-02 school year. He became coach of the East Wake summer league team the following summer and held the position every year since.

He took a break from the high school team until his son, Storm, graduated in 2005. Kincaid returned in 2006, filling the junior varsity coaching position. In 2007 he became assistant varsity coach alongside head coach James Sarver, and when Sarver resigned in 2008 Kincaid took over the top position.

“I’ve been around for a while,” Kincaid said. “Whatever role East Wake baseball needed me for was what I did. I prayed about it and said maybe this is just the time. I felt like it was the right time to do what I did as much as I enjoyed coaching baseball at East Wake.”