Indiana Baseball: Mercer Announces Staff Additions Of Held, Parker, Dykes
IU baseball head coach Jeff Mercer on Wednesday officially announced the additions of Dan Held, Justin Parker and Casey Dykes to his staff.
Held will serve as the program's recruiting coordinator, while Parker serve as an assistant coach working with IU's pitchers. Dykes will work in a volunteer assistant coach capacity with the program.
Held was previously the Executive Director of the Indiana Bulls Baseball Organization, a position he had held since 2006. He owns nine years of pro baseball playing experience and 16 years coaching experience, including four in the major leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals, to the Hoosiers.
"I've known Dan for over 10 years," Mercer in a release. "He hired me for my first coaching job with the Indiana Bulls directly after college. Working with him over the years it became obvious he'd make a terrific recruiting coordinator. His experiences in professional baseball as a player and coach will translate well to our player development processes. His many relationships with high school and summer coaches will make for a smooth transition into leading our recruiting efforts."
"I am really excited to join Jeff Mercer and Justin Parker at IU," Held said. "It's going to be an awesome staff, and I'm really excited to get going."
Parker joins Indiana after spending the previous two seasons as UCF's pitching coach. Prior to that, he spent six seasons as an assistant on Mercer's staff at Wright State.
Last season, the Knights pitching staff made their mark in the program record book in multiple categories. They finished with the eighth sub-3.50 ERA in program history at 3.38, struck out the second-most batters in a single season at 556, and set a new program record with 7.1 hits allowed per nine innings. They also surrendered the third-fewest hits at 405.
Following the 2018 season, Parker and UCF had five pitchers selected in the draft, the most since 2002 and tied for the second most ever in school history.
"Justin and I played together in college, then were assistants together for several years, it's been very gratifying to see him become one of the best pitching coaches in the country," Mercer said. "Indiana University baseball is better in every way with Justin joining the organization. He is an incredible asset to our entire program, not just our pitching staff."
"I couldn't be happier to be back home in Indiana, to work with Coach Mercer again and to continue to build on the tradition here," Parker said. "As far as recruiting Hoosiers and player development, I am just really looking forward to doing that here at home."
Dykes arrives in Bloomington after four seasons at Virginia Military Institute, where he worked with catchers, hitters and served as the program's recruiting coordinator.
Under Dykes' watch, 14 players earned all-conference honors and five became draft picks – including a school-record three underclassmen in 2018. His hitters paced VMI to two top-10 finishes in Division I home runs. His hitters posted 32 top-10 efforts among the VMI record books, and he coached two of the three players in school history to earn All-American honors.
"I coached Casey at Western Kentucky and then coached with him for a year, before he left to become the recruiting coordinator at Virginia Military Institute," Mercer said. "His outstanding track record of player development and tireless work ethic will be driving forces in our program's success. I'm thrilled to work with Casey again and we're very fortunate he's joining IU Baseball."
"I am extremely grateful to Jeff Mercer and Indiana University for giving me this opportunity and believing in me," Dykes said. "It is an unbelievable feeling for my family to join the Hoosier tradition and have a role in the vision of Coach Mercer. I have complete trust in his ability to lead and develop young men in this game and in life at the highest level. This is an exciting time in Bloomington and I understand the expectation at Indiana. I can promise the players, coaches, and entire Indiana family that they will get my very best every single day. Let's go to work."
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