Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – The Virginia Tech baseball program will officially start the fall season next week, but before announcing the newest student-athletes joining the team, head baseball coach John Szefc wanted to introduce the two newest members to the Hokies support staff – Brian Neal, the senior director of strength and condition, and Kyle Staggers, a director of sports medicine.
Neal, who is originally from Forest, Virginia, played football at Bridgewater College and played for the DIII national championship in 2001 before starting his professional career.
He was a graduate assistant at Southern Miss (2005-07), was an intern for the US Olympic Training Center in 2007 – training Olympic and Paralympic athletes for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and worked as an assistant strength coach at Sam Houston for three seasons, helping the track and field programs win a handful of championships.
Neal comes to Blacksburg from his latest stop in Starkville, Mississippi where he worked for the Bulldogs baseball program the past eight seasons. In his time there, Mississippi State earned seven NCAA tournament bids, played in five Super Regionals and made two trips to the College World Series. They also won the SEC title in 2012 as well as had four first round MLB draft selections.
"Starting with Brian, he is a really big get for us from a baseball perspective," Szefc said. "He's just good across the board at weight training, conditioning, flexibility, but in particularly, I think, in looking at him, his specialty is baseball.
"He just got done working with Mississippi State baseball for eight years and he's been to Omaha twice with them. When we talk about building culture and having a baseball guy here that understands the throwing athlete, he is absolutely that. Plus, he has great passion for this place because he's from Virginia."
"It's always been something I wanted to do, kind of the end goal for me professionally, come back closer to family, but also build on the already great tradition of Virginia Tech especially within the Olympic sports," Neal said. "Mississippi State has a rich history with baseball. What I learned from there is what championship baseball programs look like and coming back here – we now have a championship program type coach, facilities, staff and now we just want to build that championship culture moving forward."
Staggers came to Virginia Tech in 2013 and was a graduate assistant in the Sports Medicine Department for two years while working on his master's degree. During that time, he served as an athletic trainer for the track and field and cross country programs for a season and assisted with football his final year.
Upon completion of his master's degree in 2015, he became the head athletic trainer for the track and field and cross country programs, while also serving as a research coordinator for the NCAA-DoD Grand Alliance.
Prior to Virginia Tech, he worked for three years as student athletics trainer at Florida State University, working with the football, softball, sand volleyball, and women's soccer programs. He also worked as a pre-season athletic training intern with the Baltimore Ravens in the summer of 2012.
"Kyle has worked here before with the track and field programs, so he's got a good feel for Virginia Tech," Szefc said. "I think he's got an aggressive medical thought process, looking to head off problems before they become too serious. He's a really good prehab guy, looking to get guys more flexible and stronger before there's a breakdown and he comes at a really good time for us."
"This is an awesome opportunity and I'm thankful for Coach Szefc trusted Mike and Brett to come on board and have full trust in me in their system," Staggers said. "I'm really excited for this new opportunity because it gives me a chance to grow, it's something new and with all the excitement around the program, it's a great time to join them."
The Tech baseball team will open fall practice on Tuesday, Sept. 4 and have already announced two exhibition games at English Field at Union Park, both on Friday nights this fall.
The Hokies will welcome the Charlotte 49ers for the first game on September 14, while the High Point Panthers will be on campus for the second game on October 5. First pitch for the Charlotte game is 7 p.m., while the High Point game will start at 6 p.m.