Questions, comments? JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
Bryan Engle played four sports for Donegal before picking one (baseball) to play at Messiah College. Engle is back at Messiah, this time as the school’s head baseball coach. Here’s my story from Saturday’s New Era about Engle’s new ‘dream’ job:
Bryan Engle took the long road to his dream job.
But what a road — a bluegrass-lined road — it was for the 1999 Donegal grad.
After spending two years as a graduate assistant at Southeastern Conference powerhouse University of Kentucky, the Messiah College grad recently got his dream job — at the ripe old age of 25 — when he was named head coach of Messiah’s baseball team.
Engle replaced Frank Montgomery, who retired earlier this spring after 15 years with the college.
“It has always been a dream of mine to come back to Messiah and be the baseball coach,” Engle said. “But this is happening even a little sooner than I expected.”
Engle was a four-sport standout for Donegal, and he earned a football scholarship to Kutztown University out of high school.
But he transferred to Messiah in Grantham before ever playing a down for KU.
Engle, who played soccer, basketball, baseball and kicked for the football team at Donegal, earned a degree in sports and exercise science, and he was an award-winning pitcher for the baseball team at Messiah before heading to Kentucky to work on earning his Master’s Degree in sports management.
There, Engle got a job as a graduate assistant, working in an administration capacity for Kentucky’s football, men’s basketball and baseball programs.
He was in charge of managing the school’s Nike contract budget, ordering products for Wildcats’ players and coaches — namely Rich Brooks in football, Tubby Smith in basketball and John Cohen in baseball for the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons.
“I can’t speak highly enough about that experience,” said Engle, who was named Commonwealth Conference Pitcher of the Year in his senior season for Messiah.
Engle earned his first baseball coaching job after leaving Kentucky in 2005 when he was the pitching coach for the Kansas City franchise in the MINK — Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas — League.
But after one season there, Engle came back to Lancaster County because of an illness in his family.
He’s spent the last two seasons at Messiah as a men’s assistant basketball coach under Rick Van Pelt.
And when Montgomery retired the first week of June, Engle got the call. He took over on July 1, becoming the 11th head coach in what will be the 44th year of Messiah’s baseball program.
It is a full-time position, and Engle will remain on the men’s basketball bench as Van Pelt’s assistant.
“I’m definitely excited,” Engle said. “I’m anxious to get rolling.”
Messiah’s first game is Feb. 16, and Engle said official practices begin in late September. And when the Falcons take the field, they will have six former Lancaster County players in uniform:
Jeremy Stoltzfus (Conestoga Valley, junior pitcher), Jon Shenk (Conestoga Valley, freshman second baseman), Jordan Zimmerman (Warwick, freshman outfielder), Ben Snyder (Ephrata, junior utility man), Adam Ranck (Conestoga Valley, freshman third baseman) and Jonathan Ebersole (Ephrata, sophomore outfielder).
And one of Engle’s assistant coaches, Derek Price, is a former Mount Calvary standout, so Messiah’s baseball roster has a definite Lancaster feel to it.
“Messiah is a hidden gem,” Engle said. “It’s known as a soccer school, but a lot of other athletes in a lot of other of our sports have gone on to do a lot of great things.”
Like another former Donegal standout, Chris Heisey, who was an all-conference baseball player for Messiah before being drafted in the17th round by the Cincinnati Reds in 2006.
Engle is hoping Heisey won’t be Messiah’s last baseball standout to go pro.
