Baseball
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach / Offensive Coordinator
A proven winner with an aggressive offensive approach and 17 years of college coaching experience, Sawyers returned to K-State in July 2014 when he was hired as the Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator. Sawyers, in his second consecutive season with the Wildcats and fourth overall, oversees the hitters and catchers defensively as well as help coordinates recruiting.
Manhattan is a familiar setting for Sawyers. Prior to coaching at Texas A&M from 2011-14, he spent two years on Brad Hill's coaching staff in 2009 and 2010, helping the program make its first ever trips to an NCAA Regional. The two regional appearances represent 12 NCAA postseason trips Sawyers has helped direct his teams to since 2000. He has also assisted in leading teams to four Super Regional berths and two trips to the College World Series, with the last being in 2011 with Texas A&M.
Sawyers has guided individual hitters gain national recognition and graduate to the professional level at every one of his stops. In 17 years, Sawyers has helped six different players earn conference player of the year honors, seven gain 20 All-American selections and 38 be selected in the MLB Draft, including eight in the top 10 rounds.
Two of those 38 players, Shane Conlon and Max Brown, were taken in the 2015 MLB Draft, capping Sawyers’ return season to K-State. While Conlon and Brown were the most veteran hitters in the offense, Sawyers helped eight hitters that entered the season with no Division I experience transition to the Big 12. A pair of those newcomers, junior college transfers Tyler Moore and Tyler Wolfe, were the Wildcats’ top hitters in overall and conference-only games, respectively. Both picked up All-Big 12 Honorable Mention accolades to help guide the Wildcats to the Big 12 Baseball Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The last four seasons at Texas A&M represented the conclusion of Sawyers' five total campaigns with the Aggies after he spent 2008 as a volunteer assistant coach. In each of those five seasons, Sawyers helped Texas A&M reach an NCAA Regional while also winning two Big 12 championships. In addition, he tutored standouts Tyler Naquin - 2011 Big 12 Player of the Year, All-American and a first round pick by the Cleveland Indians in 2012 - and Krey Bratson, a 2011 Freshman All-American.
The successful stints at Texas A&M sandwich stellar campaigns at K-State, which were unprecedented at the time for the Wildcats. From the program-record stolen bases in his first season in 2009 to .323 team batting average in his second year, he made his mark on K-State for years to come.
The 2009 campaign was a year of power for the Wildcats under Sawyers. The team hit 22 triples and 58 home runs, the most in both categories since 1997. The ‘Cats offense shined brightest when it came to stolen bases as the 149 steals were the second-most in the nation and two shy of breaking the Big 12 record. Overall, the team finished among the Big 12 leaders in OBP (second, .399), runs scored (second, 458), hits (second, 675), RBI (second, 420), doubles (third, 123), and fewest strikeouts (fourth, 393).
Six Wildcats earned All-Big 12 honors in 2009, including outfielder Nick Martini, who also garnered Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American honors, and Justin Bloxom (.361) and Carter Jurica (.353), who finished fourth and eighth, respectively, in the Big 12 in batting average.
The 2010 squad matched the success 2009 by also reaching the NCAA postseason, but the offense topped the previous season's totals in batting average (.323 in 2010; .317 in 2009), runs per game (7.6 vs. 7.4) and OBP (.426 vs. .399).
The offense was paced by Martini, who went on to be named Big 12 Player of the Year in 2010 and highlight a list of three K-State hitters who earned all-conference honors. Although Martini was eventually selected during the 2011 Draft as a junior, two other Wildcat hitters, Jurica and Adam Muenster, were selected in the 2010 MLB Draft. Jurica's selection in the third round by the San Francisco Giants was the highest a Wildcat had been picked since 1969.
Prior to his appointment at Texas A&M in 2008, Sawyers worked with current Aggie head coach Rob Childress as an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator at Nebraska from 2003-07. While in Lincoln, he helped the Huskers earn four trips to the NCAA Tournament, including a showing at the 2005 College World Series. Sawyers, who lettered two years at Nebraska, worked with 12 Huskers who were selected in the MLB Draft, including Alex Gordon, a two-time Big 12 Player of the Year. In 2005, Gordon won five national player of the year awards before being taken as the second overall pick by the Kansas City Royals.
Sawyers took on all hitting coach responsibilities at Nebraska beginning with the 2006 season, when the team batted .310 - its best mark in four years - and ranked in the top three of the Big 12 in home runs, stolen bases, OBP and slugging.
Also during his time in Lincoln, Sawyers served as the academic coordinator and worked with the catchers. Additionally, Sawyers helped the Huskers recruit their then-highest-rated class in school history, as the 2004 recruiting class was ranked 16th nationally by Collegiate Baseball.
After serving as the volunteer assistant at Nebraska in 2000, Sawyers spent the 2001 and 2002 seasons as the head coach at Hutchinson Community College, compiling an 87-30 record and two postseason berths. In 2001, the Dragons went 40-16 and won the Jayhawk West Sub-Regional, while the 2002 squad set a school record with 47 wins and was ranked as high as seventh by the NJCAA.
Sawyers' coaching career began at Northwestern (La.) State in 1999 as a volunteer assistant coach, helping the Demons finish second in the Southland Conference.
Sawyers first played collegiately at Point Loma (Calif.) Nazarene College in 1994. Following a year off, he played at Mendocino (Calif.) Junior College in 1996 before finishing up his playing career at Nebraska.
A native of Willits, California, Sawyers received his bachelor's (1998) and master's (2000) degrees from Nebraska. He is married to the former Dena Lindeblad and the couple have one child, Andrew James (A.J.).
