BRUCE – Bruce baseball coach Larry Villiard looks forward to every chance he has to work with his team.

Sure, he’s a baseball guy and loves teaching the game, but the group of Red Raiders he has this year make it especially enjoyable.

“It’s fun to coach when the kids love to play,” Villiard said.

That all starts with the team’s only senior Kurt Johnson who sets the example for the rest of the team that is off to a 7-1 start to kick off the year and the No. 6 ranking in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association Division 4 poll.

“Kurt is a quiet leader and takes charge when he has to,” Villiard said. “He’s been our leadoff hitter the past three years and everyone on this team sees what he does and sets the tone for us from the start.”

Setting the tone for the Red Raiders may be selling Johnson short as he’s helped kick-start first innings that have produced 10, nine and seven runs already this season.

Johnson also sets the tone on defense where he can play almost every position when he’s not setting up shop on the mound as the team’s ace.

“He’s a coaches dream,” said Villiard of Johnson’s ability to play shortstop, centerfield  or first base. “He’s so fundamentally sound and has a great insight for the game.”

While Johnson is solid, he’s not alone in leading the Red Raiders as they have fellow first-team all-conference picks in junior catcher Ryan Gerber and Casey Gudis back from last year’s state tournament qualifying team.

It’s not a power hitting team by any means, but this Bruce team can hit the ball to all parts of the field.

“We have a couple of kids that can hit the ball out of the park, but not a lot of them,” Villiard said. “I like it when the kids drive the ball and that leads to a few doubles. We score our runs that way.”

The defense has been a part of the team that Villiard admits could use some improvement and was evident during the one loss to Burlington Catholic Central earlier this season. Things have started to come around since and Villiard is confident it will be fine.

“At the beginning of the season I really thought this could be the best defensive team I’ve coached in years,” Villiard said. “We take pride in our defense and I really want to the kids to be hungry to play defense.”

As the Bruce tradition begins to grow – the Red Raiders have won conference titles in seven of the last 10 years – so does the record of Villiard whose next win will be No. 400 of his career.

Reaching that number will make him the eighth active spring coach to do so and No. 12 total, including summer coaches.