Sawyers introduced as next Southeast Missouri State baseball coach

Andy Sawyers’ wife, Dena, and 6-year-old son, A.J., couldn’t make it to Cape Girardeau to see the 41-year-old officially introduced as the sixth head baseball coach in Southeast Missouri State history on Monday morning at the Show Me Center.

But the pair was on the forefront of his mind, and for good reason.

As soon as Southeast athletic director Brady Barke presented him with a red jersey emblazoned with the No. 3 and a flat-bill hat, Sawyers thanked those attending at the Show Me Center as well as Dena, who’d executed eight moves around the country over the last 16 years so her husband could fulfill his coaching dreams.

“So why would you do that? Why do you move your wife eight times in 16 years? For me it’s about the relationships with young men and to have a chance to play a role in their life,” Sawyers said. “I’m not so old that I can’t remember what it was like for me when I was 18 years old, heading off to college. I was immature, I was willful, I was very much consumed with pride, and selfish. And five years later, I had a degree; two years later, I had a master’s degree and I had a wife, and I had dramatically changed as a human being.

“Without a doubt, if it weren’t for the mentorship and the friendship that I had established with my coaches along the way, I would have not been in that position, and that’s important to me. The relationship with young men and have a chance to play a meaningful and impactful role in their lives is pretty much why we do this and the baseball part is the gravy on top.”

Sawyers’ hiring was announced as the Redhawks’ coach Friday evening, replacing Steve Bieser, who departed for the head coaching job at Missouri a month ago after leading Southeast to its third consecutive outright Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title and first OVC tournament championship and NCAA Regional berth since 2002 this season.

For Barke, who had the interim tag dropped from his title June 7, he had three specifics he was looking for during the search — someone with high integrity and character, the ability to recruit regionally and develop student-athletes on and off the field.

Sawyers checked those boxes, with Barke particularly impressed with conversations about off-field player development, which included volunteer work.

“There was a ton of interest and excitement in this position from before it was ever posted all the way through the process, and I think if we wouldn’t have hired somebody there would still be people calling about the job,” Barke said. “It’s really a testament to where our program is, it’s a testament to the future of what are going to be able to do, but through that process there was one person that really stood out from the rest. Andy Sawyers is someone that far exceeded expectations as it related to those areas.”

It’s the first Division I head coaching gig for Sawyers. He was the head coach at Hutchison Community College in Kansas in 2001 and 2002, leading the Dragons to two Sub-Regionals while recording 87 wins, including a school-record 47 in 2002.

The Willits, California, native played at Point Loma (California) Nazarene College in 1994 and Mendocino (California) Junior College in 1996 before finishing up his playing days at Nebraska, where he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 1998 and his master’s degree two years later.

He was a volunteer assistant at Northwestern State in 1999 and Nebraska in 2000 before taking over at Hutchison Community College. He was an assistant at Nebraska from 2003 to 2007 before spending the 2008 season as a volunteer assistant at Texas A&M. He returned to A&M as associate head coach in 2011 after a two-year stint at Kansas State, where he’s been associate head coach the past two years.

He’s been part of eight NCAA Regional teams, two NCAA Super Regional teams and went to the College World Series with Nebraska (2005) and Texas A&M (2011).

“He knows what it takes,” Barke said. “He’s competed at that level as a student-athlete; he’s coached at that level at multiple places. He’s been a head coach, he’s been successful there — not surprisingly. So I’m really confident that we have the right person. I’m excited for him.”

The Redhawks have posted a record of 112-64 over their last three championship seasons. They are expected to return all-conference outfielder Chris Osborne, second baseman Trevor Ezell and weekend starters Robert Beltran and Clay Chandler as well as starting center fielder Dan Holst, catcher Brian Lees and some of its top relievers in Adam Pennington and Justin Murphy.

“What a great time to be here,” Sawyers said. “I really feel extraordinarily blessed not just to have an opportunity to be a head coach, but to do it at a place that is currently winning, it’s got talented players already on the roster, it’s got administration that is supporting us to the utmost. I mean, really, it’s a dream job come true, and I’m very appreciative of the job that Steve Bieser did to set us up.”