Eric Danapilis

Coach Danapilis begins his 2nd year at the helm of the St. Joe Baseball Program. In his first year, Coach Danapilis led the Bears to a Regional Title and a birth in the State Tournament. The team finished 26-13 while hitting .319, scoring 246 runs in the 242 innings played and adding 78 extra base hits for the year. The pitching staff had an ERA of 1.78 with only 66 walks in the 242 innings pitched while striking out 228 batters on the year. Because of the teams performance Coach Danapilis was named District and Regional Coach of the Year.

Prior to St. Joseph
Danapilis came to St. Joe with a wealth of knowledge and experience, along with unmatched enthusiasm for the St. Joe baseball program. Before taking the job at St. Joseph H.S., Danapilis was the head coach at Lake Michigan College for 2 years. Before that he was the head baseball coach at Bartow H.S. in Florida. He also was an Assistant Coach at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. There he recruited teams that would appear in 3 World Series in 4 years.

High School
Lettered 4 years in baseball where he was a 3-time All-State player earning Dream Team honors in his junior and senior years. He was selected to play for the Junior Olympic Team in 1988. Led the St. Joe American Legion Baseball Team to the 1987 State Championship and was named the Ki Ki Cuyler Award winner in 1989 for the most outstanding player in the American Legion Tournament.

College
Lettered 4 years at the University of Notre Dame where he was a 3-time All-American. Danapilis was a Freshman All-American as well as being named consensus 1st team All-American in his senior year. He also played on the U.S. Pan-American team in 1991. He was named the conference player of the year in his junior and senior year as well as the tournament MVP in those 2 years.

Professional
Danapilis was drafted by the Detroit Tigers following his senior year of college and played from 1993-1997. While with the Tigers organization, Danapilis won many awards and received high recognition for his play on the field. In 1993, Danapilis help lead the Niagra Falls Rapids to a class A championship where he won the batting title that year hitting .362 and being named to the NY/Penn League All-Star Team. Another year, Danapilis hit 28 homeruns and drove in 93 runs leading the South Atlantic League in both categories. During that season he also was named to the All-Star team.

John Koch

John Koch is in his 2nd year with St. Joseph H.S. Koch will again serve as the pitching coach for the Varsity team. Koch led the pitchers to excellent 2009 season not only with the statistics but teaching them the mechanics of pitching and how to become a better pitcher mentally and how to get hitters out. Under his leadership the pitching staff won 26 ball games with a ridiculous ERA of 1.78 walking only 66 batters while striking out 228 in just over 242 innings pitched. Because of an unbelievable season and the help of Coach Koch, Nick Kirkpatrick was named 2nd Team All-State for the 2009 season. Nick had a 8-3 record with a microscopic ERA of .79 with 84 strikeouts and only 6 walks in 70 innings. David Brennan also won 6 games and Andy Wheeler won 5 games. Coach Koch has many young arms to develop but is happy with the talent he has to work with for the 2010 season.

Prior to St. Joseph
John followed coach Danapilis over from Lake Michigan College where he was the pitching coach for 2 years and a volunteer assistant in the previous year. Koch comes to St. Joe with an abundance of knowledge and great experience. Koch was a standout player for Berrien Springs H.S. and also with Lake City Community College in Florida before moving into the professional ranks with the Twins and Red Sox Organizations.

High School
John Koch had an outstanding career for Berrien Springs H.S. from 1998-2001. In his senior year, he was named Mr. Baseball for the state of Michigan in 2001. In addition, he was named All-State in his junior and senior years as well as making the Dream Team in both years. He led Berrien Springs to the state finals in both 2000 and 2001.

College
Koch attended Lake City Community College where he was an outstanding pitcher for his two years while at the college. He was named conference and Florida Junior College pitcher of the year twice while receiving All-American recognition following those 2 years.

Professional
John was drafted many times. Finally, he was drafted and signed by the Minnesota Twins following his second year at Lake City Community College. John played from 2003-2004 with the Twins Organization and in 2005 with the Red Sox Organization. Koch has also played Independent professional baseball in the summers since the time in the minor leagues and continues to do so to this day.

Gary Etter

Coach Gary Etter is entering his fifth year as Junior Varsity coach here at St. Joseph. Past baseball experience includes 13 years as Varsity Assistant and JV Coach at New Buffalo High School. As Varsity Assistant, Coach Etter helped lead the Bison to the Final Four in 1995 and 1996. The Bison brought home the Class “D” State Championship in 1995. He also coached for many years in the St. Joseph Baseball Association summer league.

Other Credits
Coach Etter is also the Men’s Junior Varsity Basketball coach at St. Joseph and Director of the Little Bears Basketball Program. He is in his 32nd year of teaching High School Social Studies, the past ten at Saint Joseph high School.

Coach Etter also advises the highly successful Academic Challenge Team at Saint Joseph High School.

Last season Gary coached the JV to a 18-10 mark.

Brad Hollister

Brad played High School ball at Airport H.S. and Legion ball for Blissfield. Brad was an All-Conference Pitcher at Airport H.S. and played 2 years at Lake Michigan College where he lead the team in appearances and ERA.

Marc Danapilis

Marc lettered 3 years at St. Joseph earning All-Conference and All-District Honors. Marc was part of a Regional Championship Team at St. Joseph. After High School, Marc went on to play at LMC.

Josh Mandarino

Josh played at St. Joseph where he lettered 3 years in baseball earning All-Conference, All-District (2 years) and All-Region accolades. Josh was a member of the boys basketball team as well. Josh went to LMC for 2 years where he pitched and played SS. After LMC, Josh played 2 years at Western Michigan where he pitched for both years. Josh has previous experience coaching at St. Joseph at the JV level.

Chris Regan

Chris lettered 3 years at St. Joe where he earned All-Conference, All-Distric, and All-Regional honors as a catcher. Chris was a member of the 2001 Regional Championship Team. Chris went on to play at Alma college. 2nd year in the program as a coach.