Alumni engagement ‘extremely important’ to new baseball head coach

Alejandro Solana // Staff Writer

Head Coach Mervyl Melendez is already accomplishing goals he set when inked as the new man in charge of the FIU baseball team.

“It is indeed a pleasure to have this great opportunity to lead FIU to where it needs to be nationally,” Melendez told Student Media the day executive director of sports and entertainment director, Pete Garcia, introduced him to the FIU community in June.

Melendez, taking over for Turtle Thomas, made one thing clear to those who were attending the press conference, “We’re not promising victories, and we’re not promising championships here.”

What Melendez did promise, however, was that he would “dedicate his life to FIU baseball,” focusing on recruiting in Miami and South Florida and keeping the FIU baseball tradition alive by welcoming back alumni to Calle Ocho.

Just three short months after making this promise, Melendez has pulled through on inviting back alumni.

“The excitement comes from the players that are in Miami. The talent level here is unlimited,” Melendez said. “This is the area we are going to target first.”

And that’s exactly what Melendez did.

According to perfectgame.org, a well-known college baseball recruiting website, FIU is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation for the 2017 recruiting class.

So far, Melendez has 24 high school baseball players committed to joining the Panthers next season. Six of the 24 players committed to FIU are currently ranked in the top 100 high school baseball player recruits.  

In addition to having the best 2017 recruiting class thus far in only three months, Melendez has also made an impact among the FIU alumni, something he stressed would be a pivotal part of his time here in Miami.

“It is extremely important for me to engage with the alumni, and that is one thing we’re going to do here from the beginning,” Melendez said.

On Sept. 30, Melendez invited all former FIU baseball players to return home for a chance to meet the new manager. Over 100 players showed up, including ex-Marlin and 2007 World Series MVP, Mike Lowell.

Well before the season is underway and any games have been played, Melendez is pulling through on the early promises he made to FIU and the fans of its baseball program.

Now, Panthers must wait and see if the success he is achieving off the field will translate to what is most important: wins in March, April and May.

 

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