From College Baseball To Loretto Mayor's Office

LORETTO, Minn. (WCCO) -- How does leading a baseball team compare to leading a small town? The residents of Loretto, Minn. will find out soon when a star second baseman becomes the city's mayor, even though he's only 23.

This is a big day for Kent Koch, starting his senior baseball season at St. Cloud State University.

"I've loved baseball all my life and I've been looking forward to having a big senior year," he said.

But Tuesday will be even bigger when he's sworn in as the mayor of his hometown.

"I don't think age really matters when it comes to this," he said. "I've lived in the town my whole life, 23 years. I've worked for the city for seven years in the parks department."

Now he'll lead the five-person city council and make a little spending money as well.

"He gets paid $100 for each meeting," said city clerk Cindy Patnode. "Not less than $1,200 and not more than $2,400 per year."

"Well, he's majoring in finance," said his father, Herb. "So I would hope he'd be on top of that."

Kent's family is firmly behind him and probably a big reason he ran. His parents own a local business and his father was the long-time fire chief.

"Well, I would just say take it slow and just make sure you run a good meeting," advised his father.

"Gives us a reason to cut practice a little bit shorter," said SCSU coach Pat Dolan, talking about Tuesday's ceremony. "But what a great honor, and for his future, too."

Kent has always been a leader on the field as team captain and last season he hit .333.

So, how will he balance the budget while also balancing baseball? He's got that covered.

"Budget talks don't really start up until August," he said. "So I'll be all done with baseball season from that standpoint. So, I'll be able to focus on baseball right away and worry about the budget later."

Kent ran unopposed in November. He only has three credits left to graduate with his finance degree.

He'll also spend some time this spring looking for his first job as a financial planner.

WCCO-TV's Frank Vascellaro Reports