BRYAN STRICKLAND HIRED AS NEW ASSISTANT BASEBALL COACHBrian Strickland, who has spent the last five seasons as the pitching/catching coach and recruiting coordinator at NAIA powerhouse Dallas Baptist University, has been hired as the new pitching coach at Abilene Christian University. ACU head coach Britt Bonneau made the announcement Friday that Strickland will join his staff, replacing Brad Holcomb who resigned earlier this month to take an assistant coaching position at Hardin-Simmons University. Strickland, who played at both the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Dallas Baptist, was a former graduate assistant under the recently retired Jim Harp. In 1994 he moved into the head assistant role, in charge of recruiting, pitchers and catchers, game-day operations, equipment and field maintenance. But it's his work with pitchers and catchers and as a recruiter that Bonneau likes. "I'm very excited that Brian will be a part of the coaching staff at ACU," Bonneau said. "Having a pitching coach will help us tremendously. He's got a lot of experience as both a pitching coach and recruiter, and that will help us work extremely well together. He brings a lot of excitement to the job, and I'm glad he's going to be here." In Strickland's five years as the head recruiter at Dallas Baptist, 15 of the players he brought to the school have either been drafted or signed professional baseball contracts. Of those 15, seven of them were drafted in the top 10 rounds of the major league baseball amateur draft. "If I've learned anything from Coach Harp in the last five years it's that you have to have pride in your program and never be satisfied," Strickland said. "I'll continue to push myself to be a better coach and recruiter at Abilene Christian." Strickland received his bachelor of science from Mary Hardin-Baylor in 1994 and his master's in liberal arts from Dallas Baptist in 1998. WOMEN'S: Basketball | Cross Country | Softball | Tennis | Track and Field | Volleyball
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