BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-- Today we begin a new season of the Samford Sports Wrap Up, Presented by Alabama Power, a series highlighting Samford's coaches and staff throughout the academic year. Today's edition will feature new head baseball coach Tony David.
 
While David is the new head baseball coach, he is not new to Samford. He has served on the baseball staff for the last 17 seasons, including the last 16 as associate head coach. He talked about the process of former head coach Casey Dunn leaving, and David officially becoming the head coach.
 
"It was kind of the worst-kept secret in baseball for several weeks," David said. "As a coach, as a man, as a father and as a husband, we've been down this rumor mill before here. As it got closer and closer, we knew this was more of a real situation. I'll remember forever when (Director of Athletics) Martin (Newton) told me over the phone, if this does finally happen, we'll name you immediately and just go on from there."
 
Despite the change at the top of the program, the majority of the coaching staff will remain the same. Tyler Shrout, who has served as an assistant coach and pitching coach for the last several years, has been promoted to associate head coach. Also, Brad Moss, who has been a volunteer assistant for the last two years, has been named a full-time assistant coach.
 
"A lot of things have gone into our success, and continuity is a huge part of that," David said. "In 17 years we've only had one (full-time) staff change, and that was a pitching coach. Even now, with the head coaching change, it's just one more staff change."
 
David said it was important to him to keep Shrout and Moss on staff.
 
"Talking in the weeks leading up to this with Martin Newton and Bo Kerr about it, that was my charge with them, we need to do everything we can to make sure Coach Shrout is still the pitching coach here this year," David said. "The administration stepped up and did a great job to make that happen, because I'd put Coach Shrout up with anybody in the country in terms of developing pitchers and making guys better from year-to-year. And then talent evaluation, we all know what we bring to the table there and can trust in that regard that those guys can go out and say, this guy can help us win and help us get to the next level."
 
David talked about his plans for the remainder of the staff as well.
 
"We'll hopefully make it official soon, but we're in the process of finalizing our volunteer spot, our director of baseball operations spot," David said. "We're going to have a director of player personnel, and all three guys, once they're finalized are going to be impact guys. They're going to be pro guys, former players here at Samford that had an impact here, big leaguers. We want to surround our guys with people that can help them get better, people that fit the mission of Samford University and people that are going to go year-to-year making sure these guys develop as players."
 
Samford has had a lot of success over the years of having players drafted. He said he feels like his staff will continue to help players get to the next level.
 
"We've had 28 guys drafted in the last nine or 10 drafts, we know you can do that here," David said. "And so, it's nice to have those guys around. The player personnel guy is going to be a former big leaguer that we'll announce soon. They'll look at him and say, you played in the Major Leagues for 10-plus years, help me get to that next level."
 
He said, in addition to the coaching staff and successful history in the draft, the league the Bulldogs play in will help players get noticed as well.
 
"Our league is a top-10 league and we've been one of the top two teams in the league for a long time," David said. "There's something to be said for coming into a program with that type of coaching staff to where you can hopefully help keep us at the top and then some, and not try to start at the bottom at another place."
 
David talked about the transfer portal and how it has changed how you have to approach running a program.
 
"There is nothing like the transfer portal," David said. "That stuff will punch you in the face right when you get going. It's crazy, you're talking about over 2,000 Division I guys, well over 3,000 total in the baseball portal. I'm not sure exactly what the creators had in mind for this, but I know it's not this. We've sat down as a staff to get organized, because now you have to take care of this incoming roster that's coming to campus in five or six weeks, while always in the recruiting world, keeping in mind what's next."
 
The roster for the 2022 season will be a lot different from the 2021 edition. David said, however, they were able to keep all of the younger players they were excited about and he feels like they will make a big difference in the next couple of years.
 
"We wanted to keep every one of our players, but the transfer portal is a new thing and there are over 2,000 in there for a reason," David said. "We were ecstatic to keep our young guys, that's for sure. Colton Ledbetter is a difference maker that is going to be a really good pick out of here in a couple of years. He and Jacob Cravey are the first two, right out of the gate. Jacob, I think is going to be one of the top SoCon pitchers in the league this year, and if he continues to develop like our pitchers have each year under Coach Shrout, he's going to be a really good pick in a couple of years.
 
"We signed the 2020 class to come in last year and be the guys," David said. "They had their senior seasons (high school) cut short by COVID, they had their freshman seasons a little jumbled because of the overlap with older guys. They got a Regional appearance out of it; a lot of them got good playing time. Garrett Howe is another one, Blake Bortak, Carson Hobbs and a lot of others. It was a large class, and our thing was we were going to build around that group. Andrew Bennett is another young guy that is going to be good for us. I called those guys right afterwards and said, this is your time. Come in and be ready, because we're going to need your group to be ready to go."
 
The Samford baseball team is coming off another stellar season. The Bulldogs won the SoCon Tournament for the second time in the last three seasons, earning just its third-ever bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 
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