AlaBCA Hall of Fame Banquet

AlaBCA Hall of Fame Banquet Set for January 18

Five active coaches will be inducted into the Alabama Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame on Friday, Jan. 18, at a banquet set for 6:30 p.m. at the Birmingham Mariott Hotel, AlaBCA executive director Barry Dean announced today.
               

The inductees include Hoover High School baseball coach Rick Davis, Satsuma High School baseball coach Mike Szymanski, Samford University assistant coach Gerald Tuck and Southern Union Community College coach Joe “Jabo” Jordan and high school coach Dick Steed, who will receive the AlaBCA’s prestigious  Distinguished Service Award for 2013.
               

“All five men have had a major positive impact through their passion for baseball and teaching,” said Dean. “They have touched the lives of hundreds of student-athletes as result.”
               

A press conference will kick off the festivities at 5 p.m., followed by a reception for the inductees at 5:45 p.m.
               

The Hall of Fame banquet highlights the 18^th annual AlaBCA Convention and Clinic which begins Thursday, Jan. 17 and concludes on Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Marriott.
               

In addition to the Hall of Fame induction, the awards dinner will also recognize prep coaches of the year in each classification for 2012vas well as prep players of the year, JUCO players of the year, JUCO and college coaches of the year among several other special awards including the prestigious Sammy Dunn Memorial Award.
               

Author and motivational speaker Todd Gongwer will be the keynote speaker. Gongwer wrote the popular inspirational book  LEAD…For God’s Sake.
                                

THE INDUCTEE BIOS

RICK DAVIS:The longtime Hoover coach has a career 629-303 career prep baseball coaching record in 23 seasons including a 532-236 record for the Bucs since taking over the program in 1994. His Hoover teams have reached the state playoffs 14 times with one state title. The Chilton County High School graduate’s father Richard Davis received the AlaBCA Distinguished Service Award in 2005. Davis’ Hoover teams have averaged 29.5 wins per season.

MIKE SZYMANSKI: Szymanski is beginning his 30^th season as a baseball coach in 2013 including 28 years as head baseball coach at his alma mater Satsuma. His teams hav compiled a 546-266 record since 1988. His teams have reached the state playoffs 20 times with 16 area championships, four region titles, one state baseball title and one runner-up finish. His .672 winning percentage is among the best in the state. He has served as a coach in the East-West series and served as a coach in the AHSAA’s 2001 North/South All-star game. Szymanski played collegiately at Wallace-Selma Community College and at William Carey College.

GERALD TUCK: The 76-year old Tuck has been coaching for 54 years. A 1954 graduate of Birmingham’s Phillips High School attended Howard College participating in football and baseball. He then spent a few years playing baseball in the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Dodgers organizations. He began coaching at Minor High School in 1959, left for Mortimer Jordan in 1962 and remained there for the next 23 seasons.
He also coached at Phillips and Tarrant – a total of 31 years as a high school coach – and joined the staff at Samford Univerity as an assistant in 1990 where he has been ever since. His teams had only three losing seasons and recorded more than 500 wins in his head-coaching tenure. Tuck was the first inductee into the Samford University Baseball Hall of Fame in2005 and received the John W. Russell Ambassador of the Game Award which was co-sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in 2009.

JOE “Jabo” JORDAN: The Mobile native has compiled a 966-429-1 career coaching record at Southern Union Community College in Wadley since becoming its head coach in the 1987-88 school year. He began his coaching career at Newnan (GA) High school in 1983 compiling an 80-24 record including a perfect 24-0 season in his final campaign in 1987.  Jordan played collegiately at Lurleen Wallace Community College in Andalusia and at Jacksonville State. He served two seasons as a graduate assistant at JSU including serving on the 1983 staff that led the Gamecocks to a runner-up finishing in the NCAA Division II World Series. Jordan’s Southern Union teams have won division titles eight times and the Region XXII title three times. His 966 wins ranks him in the top 15 NJCAA active coaches. In 1991 he coached a U.S. JUCO All-Star team in a 10-day tournament in Cuba and coached the South team at the USA Baseball Championships in Boise (ID) in 1992.

DICK STEED: A high school and college baseball coach for 35 years, Steed is receiving the Distinguished Service Award for his leadership as president of the Jefferson County Baseball  Coaches Association and as a charter board member of the AlaBCA and for his passion and leadership of the Alabama East-West Baseball All-Star competition. He served as the Jeffco coach for a decade.  Steed, currently the head coach at Lawton Chiles High School in Tallahassee, Fl., spent 16 years coaching and teaching in the Birmingham area with head coaching stops at Huffman and Shades Valley high schools. He was also an assistant at Samford University and Hoover High School. The former Florida State standout also had coaching stops at DeKalb Junior College in Atlanta and at Rochester, N.Y. 

Provided by the AHSAA