Gary Sevier
Assistant Baseball Coach
Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas
Education: Lyon College (undergrad), Missouri State (grad), United States Army
Offical bio
Twitter: @CoachSevier
Email: gary.sevier at lyon.edu
The moment you first realized that you might like to make coaching part of your career?
It’s actually crazy story. I met one of my biggest mentors overseas, the head of the International Police Liaison Officers in Baghdad. I was a little over halfway through with my tour in Iraq and we had some downtime in between missions. The conversation started with, “Do I plan on making a career out of the military?” I was really unsure. He asked me a question: “If you could do anything in the world right now without any restrictions — e.g., financial, educational, etc. — what would I do for a career?” The answer came without hesitation, “I would coach college baseball”. His response, “Why don’t you?”. So, within the next hour I had already exchanged emails with Kirk Kelley who coached me in my youth and at the time was the head baseball coach at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. He is now the AD/head baseball coach at Eastern Oklahoma State College. The rest is kind of history and I can say without hesitation it was one of the greatest decisions of my life!
Outside of mentors, talk about one way you’ve learned some aspect of coaching.
I have learned so much from my players! Crazy concept right?!? I truly believe that I’ve become a better coach, recruiter, husband, father, and Christian because of my players. I learn something everyday from at least one of them, whether it is dealing with different personalities and adjusting something within my message to reach a certain player or a juco transfer that has a drill that I might not have heard of. We (coaches) have to be receptive to information from everyone we encounter.
If you could go back to your rookie coach self and give one piece of advice, what would it be?
I would tell myself to strengthen my relationship with Jesus and don’t be afraid to spread the Gospel to anyone who is willing to listen!
Name one new thing you want to accomplish this year.
Help take a Lyon College baseball team to the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho for the first time ever.
Your dream lunch date. One coach. Any sport. Any level. Who is it?
“Sweet” Lou Yacinich legendary head baseball coach of Grand View University (NAIA) in Iowa. My first ABCA convention I had the privilege of sitting in the hallway of a convention center listening to this man talk baseball and more importantly life at like 2 am. I would love to pick his brain more!
Be the first to comment