Baseball welcomes back Flamont as assistant coach
Former Central Michigan baseball volunteer assistant Sam Flamont gave head coach Steve Jaksa a lasting impression.
When assistant coach Derek Simmons accepted a position at Kennesaw State, it left an assistant coaching vacancy, and Jaksa said filling it didn’t take long, especially when Flamont showed interest.
“It’s a close network of coaches,” Jaksa said. "You know how that is, it’s like a fraternity within itself. We’ve stayed in touch with him. It’s not like he left and we didn’t talk to him anymore. You see him out at games, you see him at events and in the summer he was working camps, so it wasn’t like we weren’t in touch with him at an as-needed basis or a regular basis.”
“When we knew that Derek was able to leave and going to leave, we didn’t even really have to advertise. We had a select few guys, and he expressed interest right away, so we went through that process, which wasn’t a lengthy process because of the history.”
Flamont, who took the opportunity to become an assistant coach at Davenport in 2011, will work defensively with infielders and be a hitting coach.
Jaksa said Flamont knows how the program works and liked what he did for it as a graduate assistant during his short, one-semester stint in 2010.
“You know how life goes, an opportunity came somewhere else, and, at the end of the day he worked his way back here and we’re very pleased,” Jaksa said. “He’ll hit the ground running and keep us going. He knows a lot of people here, and he knows the ropes a little bit. We’re excited to have him back.”
Simmons left after one season, and Jaksa said he appreciated his loyalty to the program but expects a similar coach in return.
“Both have a lot of energy, both are good teachers, so the way I look at is, I lost a really good coach and I’m getting a really good coach.” Jaksa said. “To have a quality person, a quality teacher, a guy the guys can relate to and also a guy they respect. I had a guy like that, and I’m getting a guy back like that, so I feel really good about that.”
