Welcome and good luck to Southeast's Coach Sawyers

We love our baseball around here, don't we? We love the game, the lessons it teaches and the coaches committed to teaching them. With that, we welcome Andy Sawyers, the new head baseball coach at Southeast Missouri State University.

Included in Sawyers' coaching resume are positions as volunteer assistant at Northwestern State in 1999 and Nebraska in 2000; head coach at Hutchison Community College in Kansas for 2001-2002, where he took his team to two Sub-Regionals; assistant coach at Nebraska from 2003-2007; and volunteer assistant at Texas A&M in 2008, before becoming a head coach there in 2011. Most recently, he was associate head coach at Kansas University the past two years.

Coach Sawyers has enjoyed success along the way -- NCAA Regional teams, NCAA Super Regional team, College World Series in two states, for example -- and we look forward to his experience furthering the Southeast team's success.

Sawyers is committed to the game, but even more committed to the players he coaches, he told the Southeast Missourian.

"For me it's about the relationships with young men and to have a chance to play a role in their life." He added that those relationships and having 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 comes to the job not only with coaching experience, but player experience, as well. Originally from Willits, California, he played at Point Loma (California) Nazarene College in 1994 and Mendocino (California) Junior College in 1996, then at Nebraska, from where he received a bachelor's degree in 1998 and a master's degree two years later.

Having been on both sides of the game, he has a perspective that will prove invaluable to the baseball program, according to Southeast athletic director Brady Barke, who said of Sawyers, "He knows what it takes. He's competed at that level as a student-athlete; he's coached at that level at multiple places."

Sawyers comes to the area with his wife, Dana, and his 6-year-old son, A.J. He replaces Steve Bieser, who accepted the head coach position at Missouri after leading the Redhawks to an NCAA appearance.

"What a great time to be here," said Sawyers. "I really feel extraordinarily blessed."

Good luck, Coach!