Almost every young boy that plays little league baseball dreams at some point of playing in the major leagues. The vast majority of us realize at around 13 or 14 that isn't going to happen and then the dream for many becomes coaching, even if it's just little league, let alone at a major level. Well, that dream was just answered for Michael Tompkins, and a lot sooner than he could have ever imagined. Tompkins was a standout high school player who went on to play junior college ball, before finishing up his last two years at Centenary in Louisiana. While at Centenary he played under head coach, Ed McCann who later went on to become the head coach at Alabama A&M. Once Tompkins graduated in 2010, McCann offered him a top assistant job (one of the youngest in the country) and Tompkins jumped at the opportunity to be a 23 year old assistant coach. He thought it was a great position to be in for the next 7 years or so to get some experience for maybe getting a head coaching job of his own one day. Well.......that 7 years just turned into 1.
On January 5th, McCann announced he was stepping down for health reasons and was turning the team over to the 24 year old Tompkins, making him the youngest current head coach in college baseball. Tompkins couldn't believe it.
"It was a shock," Tompkins said. "It went from me helping out and suggesting to running it. But it helped a lot being here already. It helped me get my feet wet. I ran the offense last year from third base. I made all the calls in that regard.
"The only thing I didn't do was the pitching and game-day management. But I think from just watching and sitting there with Coach McCann, and I have been under some really good coaches in high school and junior college and have been able to learn from some of the best. That's been a big part of making me feel comfortable in the role that I'm in now. I expected this to eventually happen, but no way was I thinking it would happen at 24."
Talk about unbelievable. A young man who was just in college himself a year and a half ago is now a D1 college baseball head coach. He will be coaching against some men that are older than his grandfather. In fact, he will be coaching against some men that have been coaching longer than Tompkins has been alive, but Tompkins isn't intimidated, he welcomes the challenge and his players are behind him.
"We all think this is a good thing," said Walt Ashwander, junior second baseman. "He's not too far removed from playing himself. He knows the game. He's a player's coach.
Being a huge college baseball fan, I look forward to following Tompkins's success this year. More than likely we won't see his Alabama A&M team finishing up their season in Omaha at the College World Series, but considering the young man probably has another good 40 to 50 years of coaching ahead of him, it's probably fair to predict that he will one day be coaching at a school that's playing in Omaha competing for a national championship.
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