Ken Howe is not about to let his 2009 Keene State baseball team rest on their laurels.  Despite leading the Owls to a program best 34-11 record, a first-ever Little East tournament championship and a second straight NCAA tournament appearance, the Owls 23rd-year coach knows he and staff must continue to work hard to keep Keene State among the top programs in the competitive LEC and the country.

“We worked very hard to get the program to this level, said Howe.  “We need to work even harder to keep it there.”

Coaching a team in one of the toughest Division III conferences in the country is no easy task. But to his credit, Howe, who led KSC to rankings in national and New England polls, has always seen to it that Keene State has fielded a highly competitive team, and this spring will be no different.

Since joining Division III and the Little East Conference in 1998, Keene State has posted four 20-plus-win seasons and three consecutive 30 victory campaigns, including last spring when they shattered the school record with 34 victories on the way to capturing its first LEC championship and earning its second straight NCAA tournament berth.  Under his direction, the Owls reached the Conference's postseason tournament on nine occasions, including four trips to the championship game, culminating with last year’s crown. Howe, who was selected as the LEC’s coach of the year last season, believes the Owls will be in the hunt for the conference crown once again this spring. Howe's work at Keene State is a local-boy-makes-good story. A former hard-hitting outfielder for the Keene High Blackbirds, he played two collegiate seasons at the University of Central Florida. After a career-ending injury, Howe returned to Keene, where he received his degree in business management from KSC and began his coaching career. Howe served as both assistant and head women's soccer coach at KSC as well as baseball co-coach through the 1989 season.

Energized by a roster that includes several young but talented newcomers, Howe is pleased not only about where the team has been but also about where it's going. Under Coach Howe, there has been an influx of high-quality student athletes who have a positive effect on the growing program.

A certified umpire who runs several camps in the area, Howe also handles game and contest management during the year at KSC. He lives in Keene with his wife, Merri, and sons Branden and Dustin.

A former four-year pitcher for the Owls, Martin Testo was elevated to the position of Associate Head Coach last spring.  Testo, in his eighth season
with the program, and fourth-year as pitching coach, has developed KSC into one of the premiere pitching staffs in the LEC.  Last season, the Owls posted a conference best 3.29 ERA and had two of its pitchers, Rick Stromgren and Greg Ford, earn All-LEC honors. 

After earning a master's degree from Springfield College, Testo returned to the area where he has coached the Keene Senior Babe Ruth and highly successful Keene American Legion baseball teams. He has served the past three summers as the pitching coach of the Keene Swamp Bats in the NECBL and will take over the duties this summer as the Swamp Bats Head Coach.  The Troy, N.Y., native is a member of the KSC Admissions Office.

One of the top baseball players to come out of Keene in recent years, Dan Moylan has joined the Keene State coaching staff this season. Moylan, who played professional ball the past six seasons in the St. Louis Cardinal organization, will work primarily with Owl receivers and members of the pitching staff.

Moylan was a four-year All-State catcher at Keene High where he helped lead the Black birds to state championships his junior and senior seasons. The 1997 New Hampshire player of the year, Moylan went on to the University of North Carolina where he was named the ACC's top defensive catcher.  Moylan, who played for the Keene Swamp Bats during the summer, was drafted by the Cardinals following his sophomore season with the Tarheels.