Karas named Tosa East baseball coach

Former Wauwatosa East assistant baseball coach Brian Karas was named to the Red Raiders head job this week.

Karas replaced Matt Dahlstrom, whose career record was 38-90, a .297 winning percentage, which included going 21-62, a .253 winning mark, in the rugged Greater Metro Conference. Dahlstrom resigned in August to spend more time with his family.

The Red Raiders best season the past five years was 2010, when they finished 7-13 in league play and 15-19 overall. This past season they were 5-18 in league play and 9-21 overall.

The personable Karas has 11 years experience as a high school baseball coach, beginning in 2001 as a varsity assistant at St. Francis High School. He then moved on to Shorewood High School from 2002-05 where he was an assistant varsity coach. In fact, in 2004 he wore two hats, coaching the JV as well as assisting on the varsity level.

He moved on to St. Francis High School where he was a varsity assistant (2006-08) and then came over to Tosa East the last three seasons. This past year, in addition to his varsity duties, he also coached the JV for half the season.

Karas also has coaching experience in different sports.

He was the head coach for St. Francis freshman girls basketball team from 2004-2005 before moving on to coach boys basketball from 2005-2010 at Shorewood High School, being the head freshman coach (2005-06). He then was promoted to varsity assistant (2006-10).

He was the JV basketball head coach from 2010-11 at Tosa East and a varsity assistant. He was also the statistician for the Red Raiders football (2010-present) and softball (2009-2011) teams.

Karas graduated from St. Francis High School and the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater, where he majored in Psychology and minored in Athletic Coaching.

He played two and a half years of varsity baseball at St. Francis, being a two-time captain of the Mariners. He was also an All-Parkland Conference pitcher in 2000.

He holds the school record for lowest ERA (1.51) and fewest walks per game (1.3) in the ‘aluminum bat era.’