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Mike Szymanski is no newcomer to baseball, or coaching, or St. Luke’s Episcopal School in Mobile, Alabama. Inducted into the Alabama Coaches Hall of Fame in 2013, Coach Szymanski has been coaching baseball for 30 years. Szymanski served as head baseball coach at his alma mater, Satsuma High School, for 29 years and his resume includes a record of 580-296, (a winning percentage of .662), a state championship, 21 trips to the playoffs, 17 area championships, 4 region championships and 4 runner-up finishes. Shortly after his retirement from the public school system in 2015, he joined the faculty at St. Luke’s as a middle and upper school math and statistics teacher. In his second year at St. Luke’s, Szymanski joined the baseball coaching staff as an assistant coach. This past Spring, Szymanski served as the coach for the Varsity Boys Golf Team. In 2017-2018, he will return to the field as the Wildcats’ head baseball coach. He has coached 112 players who have gone on to sign college scholarships.
Szymanski will be working alongside Jim Bryant, a longtime friend, with 20 years of professional baseball experience. Bryant, who will serve as an assistant coach, was a teammate at Satsuma and at William Carey University before being drafted by the Seattle Mariners as a right-handed pitcher. A career ending arm injury sent Bryant to work in the private business sector for a few years, but he returned to professional baseball as a scout in 1998. Bryant worked for four major league organizations before retiring in 2014. He has worked with multiple showcases and tryouts promoting youth baseball throughout the country. His experience will no doubt be an asset to the school’s baseball program. St. Luke’s began varsity competitions in 2010, and has already earned 5 state championships, 2 in baseball (2013, 2014), 2 in boys golf and one in volleyball.