Jacksonville Promotes Hayes To Replace Montez

Jacksonville, which fired Tim Montez last week despite posting its first winning record since 2011, has promoted assistant Chris Hayes as Montez’s replacement.

Hayes was an assistant under Montez, who in three years was 80-85 but who led the Dolphins to a 33-22 record this year. Hayes, who is also a Jacksonville native, said he was honored to become head coach of his alma mater.

“This is home,” Hayes said. “I have grown up here, in this town, at this institution. Jacksonville University has provided so much for me in my growth as a student-athlete, and as a coach. Now, I look forward to giving back to the University and our baseball family.”

Hayes was a four-year starter for the Dolphins as a player. He began his college coaching career at Jacksonville in 2003, spending five years on staff in his first stint with the Dolphins. His tenure included back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in 2006 and 2007, the first time that had happened at Jacksonville since his 1994-95, when he was a player.

After the 2008 season, Hayes took over as head coach at Seminole State JC (Fla.). In five seasons, he went 125-113-1. He returned to Jacksonville in 2013 to join Montez’s staff after the longtime assistant coach was promoted following the retirement of Terry Alexander.

Jacksonville had won a total of 35 games in Alexander’s last two seasons and improved its win total in each of the last three years under Montez.

In addition to Hayes’ promotion, Jacksonville also announced recruiting coordinator Chuck Jeroloman has been promoted to the role of lead assistant coach. Jeroloman also joined the staff in 2013.

2016 COACHING CHANGES
School	Departures	Arrivals
Alabama	Mitch Gaspard	Greg Goff
Appalachian State	Billy Jones
Army	Matt Reid	Jim Foster
Butler	Steve Farley
Florida International	Turtle Thomas
Furman	Ron Smith
Jacksonville	Tim Montez	Chris Hayes
Kentucky	Gary Henderson	Nick Mingione
Lamar	Jim Gilligan (ret.)	Will Davis
Louisiana Tech	Greg Goff	Lane Burroughs
Missouri	Tim Jamieson
Northwestern State	Lane Burroughs	Bobby Barbier
Purdue	Doug Schreiber	Mark Wasikowski
San Jose State	Dave Nakama
SIU-Edwardsville	Tony Stoecklin	Sean Lyons
Texas	Augie Garrido
Villanova	Joe Godri
Youngstown State	Steve Gillispie	Dan Bertolini