Former Southeast Missouri State coach Steve Bieser eager to navigate Missouri baseball program in rugged SEC waters

About 12 years ago Steve Bieser was at Taylor Stadium in Columbia, Missouri, leading the St. John Vianney High School baseball team to a state championship.

He knew then that the goal would be to be in that same place, but as the head coach of the University of Missouri baseball team someday.

On Friday, that dream was fulfilled when Bieser was introduced as the 14th head baseball coach in Missouri history and fourth in the last 79 years.

"Missouri's a special place for me. Born and raised," Bieser said during the press conference. "Always looked at this as the pinnacle of college baseball, being able to coach at the University of Missouri."

Bieser replaced Tim Jamieson, who resigned after 22 seasons on June 11.

Mizzou athletics director Mack Rhoades said a group of 15 to 18 candidates was narrowed down to six, then interviewed in person. Bieser was one of two finalists, and the first to be offered the job, according to Rhodes.

"Why Coach Bieser? I think it starts with integrity. He is a man of unbelievable integrity," Rhoades said. "You talk to so many people that had intersected with his life and the impact that he's had on them and the way he's carried himself throughout his baseball career, his time at St. John Vianney, his time at Southeast Missouri -- his integrity, just unbelievable.

"We believe, or I believe philosophically, you can't be great on the field unless you're great off the field, and coach certainly shares that philosophy. And I'm excited because the one thing that we continued to hear over and over again about him as a coach and the student-athletes that played for him is he got them to do things they never thought they could do, that they became better in all facets of life. Not just certainly on the baseball field, but in everything. ... His ability to identify talent and develop talent was certainly a part of it. He's been a proven winner everywhere he's been."

Bieser presented the crowd with the four cornerstones he'll have for the Tigers, ones that he also had for the Redhawks during his four-year stint that resulted in three straight Ohio Valley Conference regular-season titles -- faith, family, education and service.

He also explained the motto -- committed to excellence -- that he's used with every team he's coached.

"In our minds, committing to excellence," Bieser said. "It's not about being the best; it's about being the best you, and we're going to get the most out of every player in our program and they are going to be the best them that they can possibly be. I will encourage that, I will motivate them, I will inspire them to be the best that they can be."

Southeast athletics director Brady Barke witnessed the influence he had on the Redhawks program.

"I think he definitely instilled a different type of culture within that program, and I think a lot of that is a reflection of his personal work ethic and the way that he conducts himself, and the way that he approaches his work is the same way that he had his team approach their work. It was noticeably different," Barke said in a phone interview Friday. "I worked with him when he was the interim and then working with him this past year, and to see that program and the way that they handle themselves is something that I'm certainly proud to have seen be instilled into that program."

Bieser posted a record of 138-97 at Southeast and led the team to its first OVC tournament championship and NCAA Regional berth this season since 2002.

Now he's ready to compete in the Southeastern Conference, which he called "the best baseball conference in the country."

"I'm not intimidated by the SEC, and our players will never be intimidated by the SEC, I can guarantee you that," Bieser said. "And that's the mindset that starts from Day 1, and I feel very confident about us being able to compete very early."

The Ste. Genevieve native and Southeast alum, who was 3-2 against Mizzou as the Redhawks' coach, is confident in the Tigers that return next season, many of whom he recruited at some point, and he doesn't think his recruiting at Mizzou will be that much different than at Southeast other than he'll have a better chance to land some of the players he's after.

"I've recruited probably 60 percent of these guys," Bieser said with a laugh. "Some of them wouldn't talk to me, but I recruited them. Now they have to talk to me, so we'll get them."

Bieser will work quickly to put together his coaching staff and was impressed by the number of potential assistants that reached out since Thursday afternoon's announcement that he'd gotten the job.

It is uncertain which, if any, of his assistants at Southeast -- pitching coach Lance Rhodes, hitting coach Matt Borgschulte and volunteer assistant Joe Migliaccio -- will remain with him in Columbia.

"I came in with a mindset that I had a staff and had a really good staff, but after getting put through the ringer and knowing what it really takes to make sure you get the right guy, that's exactly what we're going to do with this staff," Bieser said. "We're going to go through and make sure that those original guys that I had planned on our staff that they are the best guys.

"They are excellent guys, but we're going to check every single person out there and build that coaching chemistry just like we're trying to build team chemistry, and we're going to make sure that we have the right staff and it's going to be an excellent staff to play for, and our players should be extremely excited about the staff that we're getting ready to put together."

Mizzou went 26-30 and 9-20 in the SEC last season. The Tigers went to nine NCAA regionals under Jamieson, but have not made a regional appearance since 2012.

"We know that there's going to be ups and downs through this, and I pray that everybody stays the course with us because it's going to happen," Bieser said. "There's some things that we've got to take care of first, but it's going to happen, and we're going to be very relevant in the SEC. And when I talk about competing in the SEC, I have ultimate confidence that this program's going to rise to the top. It's going to be a prominent program in the SEC.

"And I've never jumped into anything without the mindset that the final prize out there could be accomplished, and this is a place, this is a group of guys that we're going to start and we're going to start building it right now, but this is a program that's going to find itself in a College World Series."