蘑菇视频

Mar 16, 2026 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

Albert Gallatin was looking for a new baseball head coach for the 2026 season when it came upon a resume it couldn’t pass up.

Applying for the job was a man who had guided his former team to three playoff berths in the last five years and in the past two seasons alone had compiled a combined 29-12 overall record with an 18-4 section mark, won a section championship and reached the WPIAL semifinals.

Meet Tony Watson, new head coach of the Colonials.

Watson’s success came at his alma mater, Belle Vernon, which is a section foe of Albert Gallatin. The section title in 2024 was the Leopards’ first in 12 years. The two playoff wins last season that propelled Belle Vernon into the district final four were the program’s first in the postseason in 13 years.

Belle Vernon surprisingly opted not to retain Watson’s services after the 2025 season.

The Leopards’ loss turned into Albert Gallatin’s gain.

“It was kind of a late-developing situation where they opened up the coaching position in January, I saw that and I put in for it,” Watson said of how he arrived at AG. “I always liked the community there, the school district, the people are great and I figured let’s give it a shot. I was lucky enough to get hired.”

Watson takes over for Nick Groover who led the program for the past two years to a combined record of 8-25 overall and 7-15 in section play.

The Colonials were 4-10 overall in 2025 and finished fifth in the seven-team Section 2-4A with a 4-8 record. In 2024, AG was 4-15 and fifth in the then six-team section at 3-7.

Albert Gallatin again will play in Section 2-4A along with defending co-champions Elizabeth Forward and West Mifflin, playoff teams Belle Vernon and Ringgold, and Fayette County rivals Uniontown and Laurel Highlands.

“We’re starting the process of a little bit of a rebuild,” Watson said of his current squad. “It’s going well. We’ve been working daily since the official start of practice. We got through tryouts and getting to know players and evaluating them and so forth.

“We had a good showing at our scrimmage in California the other day. We were successful.”

Watson has a very youthful squad.

“We’ve got a really young team with no seniors, so that’s a challenge, but we’ve got some young guys who can play multiple positions which is helpful,” Watson said. “The kids are buying in to what we’re teaching.”

The Colonials do return some experience.

“We have some returning starters,” Watson said. “Evan Weakland is our center fielder and lead-off hitter. He’s a junior and we expect big things from him. Our shortstop is Clay Smith who also is a junior. Ben Lilley is a sophomore who is back at catcher. Kanyon Sutton, another junior, is our third baseman and a pitcher.

“There are a few newcomers I’m expecting to step up. Kaiden Brady, a junior, right now is probably the ace of our staff and also a first baseman. Billy Craig is our second baseman and will probably round out our pitching staff. Kayden Perez, a sophomore, is a left fielder and catcher.”

Watson is known for developing pitchers and feels Albert Gallatin has some quality arms.

“Our pitching is pretty solid,” Watson said. “It’s going to be a pitch-by-committee-type of situation. We don’t typically have any workhorses that are going to come out and throw back-to-back complete games but we do have a lot of guys that are able to contribute.

“I’d say right now we’re about three or four pitchers deep with guys that are fairly solid and we expect them just to continue to get better.”

Watson, of course, knows AG’s section well.

“I’m very familiar with it, having coached at Belle Vernon,” Watson said. “The weirdest thing is going to be coaching against my son (A.J. Watson) who starts for Belle Vernon. That’s going to be kind of an awkward situation there,” Watson added with a chuckle.

“As far as the rest of the section, I know all the coaches well, they’re all good guys. Our section always has teams with deep, talented pitching. That’s going to be the biggest challenge is finding ways to get on base.”

Watson has some familiar faces joining him on the coaching staff.

“I brought all my guys from Belle Vernon to be honest with you,” Watson said. “I’ve got a loyal group of guys and we have a pretty successful track record together. To me that was a no-brainer getting them to come on board, and that’s Jason Bradburn and Nate Raffle, and I’ve also added one of my former players at Belle Vernon, Erik Pietrantoni.”

The Colonials are scheduled to open their season at 4 p.m. on Friday against Connellsville at German-Masontown Park.