MACOMB, Ill. - Settled into the 2021-22 school year, Western Illinois baseball has strengthened its coaching crew with three new additions.

Tanner Holen, Jared Morton, and Tayler Sheriff have all joined head coach Andy Pascoe's staff. 

Holen serves as an assistant coach, and Sheriff is a pitching coach/recruiting coordinator. Morton is in his first year as a graduate assistant coach.

"This is an exciting, young coaching staff that we were able to bring in for this year; I like the energy and the knowledge that all three guys bring to the table," said Pascoe. "While all three of these young men are excellent coaches, they are even better people and bring strong work ethics to this program that are going to help impact our players both on and off the field."

A former Division I catcher, Holen was most recently a site director with Perfect Game Midwest, where he facilitated high school baseball tournaments throughout the Midwest region. Additionally, he aided in the coordination of scouting and player evaluation while ensuring the tournaments ran smoothly. Holen played at the University of Cincinnati, batting .300 in 2021, hitting three home runs and slugging .529. Before joining Cincinnati, he played at the University of Kentucky and Iowa Western Community College.

"I am extremely excited to be here at Western Illinois," Holen stated. "I want to thank Coach Pascoe for the opportunity and can't wait to get started working with this group."

Coach Pascoe's thoughts: "Coach Holen recently finished up playing at the collegiate level this past spring, and he is hitting the ground running with an excellent background on hitting and catching. I am excited for our hitters to work with him as he has a strong ability to communicate, simply and effectively, our hitting philosophies. Our young catchers are also in good hands with his ability to teach them and develop them."

For the last three years, Sheriff worked for the baseball program at Spalding University as a pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. His tenure with the Golden Eagles saw him assist in numerous areas, including managing day-to-day operations of the entire pitching staff, practice setup, planning scouting reports, field maintenance, fundraising, scheduling, and coordinating all recruiting efforts. Sheriff was part of significant success with Spalding. The team finished ninth in the country in 'Perfect Game pools' during 2020 and crowned regular-season champions in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) in 2019. During the 2017-18 year, Sheriff contributed as a volunteer assistant coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Before that year, he worked nearby at Penn State - New Kensington, where he took on several duties as an assistant coach. Since 2014, Sheriff has spent his summer days functioning as a general manager and head coach for Paul Carpenter Capital Advisors AAABA Baseball in his home state of Pennsylvania. Two straight seasons (2016-17) saw his group finish as runner-ups in the national tournament. It was a feat that had not been accomplished in 73 years.

"I'm thankful for the opportunity and am excited to get to work and build on the culture that Coach Pascoe has in place here at Western Illinois," said Sheriff.

Coach Pascoe's thoughts: "Coach Sheriff brings a strong track record of developing pitchers and evaluating talent while on the recruiting trail. One of the biggest things we wanted to accomplish going into this year was to have someone that was going to develop the arms that we have on our staff, and Coach Sheriff is going to do just that, on top of being a strong recruiter."

Morton comes to Macomb with several years of coaching experience. He was most recently a pitching and first base coach with the Mankato Moondogs of the Northwoods League and also spent nearly two years as a pitching coach with Mt. San Jacinto Junior College. Prior to his role with Mt. San Jacinto, Morton was the pitching coach at another Northwoods League team -- the Rochester Honkers. Additionally, he spent time as the Assistant Director of Baseball Operations at his alma mater, UC Riverside. Morton played four seasons at UC Riverside and led the team in appearances from his sophomore through senior seasons, finishing his career with 101 total appearances for the Highlanders.

"This is a great opportunity given to me from Coach Pascoe, and I'm ready to get to work with the guys here at Western," Morton said. "We have a good group that I'm excited to develop over these upcoming years in hopes of helping us win a Summit League Championship."

Coach Pascoe's thoughts: "What I really like about Coach Morton is that he brings positive energy with him every day and with everything that he does. He also brings an excellent, well-rounded background as he knows all facets of the game: offensive, defensive, pitching, and the mental side of the game. Coach Morton also provides a strong ability to communicate and be structured with all aspects of coaching."