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Our Coaches.

"A coach is someone that sees beyond your limits and guides you to greatness!"

                                - Michael Jordan

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I’m coming to Akins from Seguin High School where I served as a varsity assistant and pitching coach. My tenure in Seguin includes 3 playoff appearances and a number of athletes playing at the collegiate level. I also work with the football team as a defensive assistant. I’m a Texas State Graduate. I’ve been married to my beautiful wife Mave, for 6 years and she is truly the backbone of our little organization. We have 3 dogs with varying degrees of obedience.

My philosophy is based on hyper competitiveness, great energy, and fun. My goal is to provide the best possible experience for each athlete and to help each athlete to do their best in all phases of their lives. When kids buy into this, the wins and losses begin to take care of themselves.

Gordon Taylor

Head Coach

I have been coaching since 1996 with programs such as Austin Baseball Club, Lone Star Baseball Academy (Owner), Lumber Yard Baseball Academy, Griffey International Baseball Camps, University of Texas Camps, Austin Freeze Softball Club, Austin Stars Softball Club and Texas Bombers. My experience is not limited to just coaching, I have held lessons for baseball and softball in areas of pitching, hitting, defense and running. I am known for infield and hitting for power! His knowledge in hitting is not limited to hitting for power and not only "rotational, "linear" etc....I take pride in being able to "teach to the hitter" and to teach what that hitter needs to focus on, based on body type, strength, height, playing position, speed, and ability. I also have experience recruiting and scouting for colleges and MLB teams (Birddog).
I have previously held these positions:
Assistant Coach-Outfield/Infield and Hitting Coach St. Edwards University
Assistant Coach-Infield/Hitting Coach Stony Point High
Head Coach-Akins Softball
Assistant Coach-Akins Baseball (Infield/Hitting)

GRADUATED

Texas State University 2002
B.A Kinesiology, Minor Special Ed.,
PE/Heath/Outdoor Sports Certified, NCAA Recruiting Certified.

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Tony Degelia

Assistant Coach

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 I graduated from Texas State in 2013 and I have been at Akins ever since. While in college I obtained a degree in Psychology and English with teaching certification. Over the past 9 years I have coached baseball for 2 years (2013-2015) and basketball for 7 years (2013-2015 & 2017 - 2021). I have been married to my amazing wife, Erica, since December 31, 2013. We currently have 3 dogs; Mavis, Dobby and Jovie. I am excited to be a part of the baseball program again and I'm looking forward to an amazing season with our kids. Wings up! 

Ben Grajczyk

Assistant Coach

I am new to Akins ECHS this year and have loved my time here so far, as it has been absolutely amazing. Here at Akins I teach Social Studies, mainly World Geography and World History. I have coached Football, Strength and Conditioning, and Baseball for 2 years running now with my first year being at Crockett ECHS. My main hobby outside of coaching and teaching is all things related to cars. I love to work on them, modify them, and just understand how they work in general. Right now, I own a 2000 Chevy Corvette and before that I owned a 2013 Dodge Challenger. You could easily describe me as a sports/car guy. My family consists of My wife, Glenda, and our 2 dogs, Duke and Dominic. We have been married for a year now and it has been everything I thought it would be and more! I went to college starting in 2016 at ACC and transferred to Texas State to wrap up my History degree/Teaching Cert and graduated in 2020. I am looking forward to what this season will bring!

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Nicholas Maag-Mendel

Assistant Coach

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