MOBILE, Ala. – South Alabama baseball volunteer assistant coach Alan Luckie announced his retirement after 16 years with the program on Tuesday. Former graduate assistant Corley Reynolds will now take over the volunteer assistant role on the Jaguar coaching staff.

Luckie joined the program in 2007 and helped the Jaguars capture four Sun Belt Conference regular-season championships, two SBC tournament titles and make four NCAA Regional appearances. One Jaguar infielder, Zach Grichor, won the 2010 ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove as a second baseman and center fielder Cole Billingsley won consecutive Gold Gloves in 2015-16. 

"I was older when I first started with Coach (Steve) Kittrell at South Alabama, older than most coaches are when they start their collegiate coaching career," Luckie said. "We have two girls and they were already grown, so I never missed a thing of them growing up. But when you fast-forward 16 years, we still have our two daughters but we also have two sons-in-law and five grandchildren. And I don't want to miss them growing up either, so I just felt it was the right time because they were getting to the ages where they are starting to have stuff and events and I just want to be there."

Luckie's defenses, since 2011, have ranked in the top 15 nationally in five different seasons, and finished 10th in the country in 2016. The all-time fielding record at USA when Luckie arrived was .972, and the Jags surpassed that mark nine times in his career, including a .983 fielding percentage in 2020 which set a new program record. The Jaguars led the Sun Belt Conference in fielding percentage five years under Luckie's guidance, including three straight seasons from 2015-17.

"Alan's been with me from day one when Coach Kittrell retired, and we knew that day was coming," Jaguar head coach Mark Calvi said. "I got here and it was a full-court press. I was never in the office for more than two days during the recruiting period, and after spending some time with Alan when I first got here I told him I was going to be on the road recruiting for a week but asked him not to leave and we would talk when I got back. Usually when a new coach comes in everyone gets let go and you start fresh. I really wasn't of that mindset, I was just trying to get settled in and hit the road recruiting. 

"I saw what an asset Alan was just in spending a short amount of time around him. He was very impressive as a coach and person. I can't just work with anybody and neither can Alan; it needs to be a certain type of guy, and I found out within two minutes that he was the kind of guy that I would like to work with. We spent an entire day talking about philosophies, where we each thought the program could go, areas of strengths and weaknesses and where he thought he could help. And he was part of putting my first staff together. For me it's about filling voids and hiring people who have different strengths and weaknesses. Some of my strengths are Alan's weaknesses, and some of Alan's strengths are my weaknesses. 

"We both saw that early on, and he being my first hire, I thought we balanced each other out and worked together really well. It started, obviously, as a working relationship and now Alan is one of my better friends in the world. I gained a really good coach and really good life-long friend; it was win-win. We had a lot of great times together. He was just a huge part of us going to where we were going and getting to some of the places we've been, especially in the early years. We couldn't have done this without him. He had a huge hand in our success. We've had a lot of good times, but we've had some bad times too. We've been up a lot and down a little, but all in all I wouldn't trade the last 12 years for anything in the world – especially having the chance to work with Alan and really develop a friendship for life."

Four Jaguar position players earned All-America honors during his stint, while Jordan Patterson (2013) and Ethan Wilson (2019) were named SBC Player of the Year, and Wilson was also honored as the Collegiate Baseball Co-Freshman of the Year and SBC Freshman of the Year.

"I coached Alan at Spring Hill (College) in 1983, and he's just an outstanding young man," former Jaguar head coach Steve Kittrell said. "You could see at that time that he was going to be very successful at whatever he did. Having known him for as many years as I did after that, I just thought he was a great fit. He's just a tremendous infield coach, and now through his experience and years has become just an outstanding coach overall. He retired from the business world and was very successful there, and took to coaching like a fish to water. He's just a great influence on young people, has outstanding morals and work ethic and he had a message for them not just in athletics but in life. He has just become a tremendous coach, and I was very proud of him for what he did at South Alabama for so many years.

"He has just a calm nature, and the players just love him. He's very knowledgeable and relayed that to the players. He is a great teacher of the game, and learned from some outstanding people along the way with the Florida Marlins. He taught the game at a professional level, and our players under me, and I'm sure Coach Calvi as well, when they left they were prepared for professional baseball especially if they were infielders, because he just did a tremendous job with them."

Luckie, who also handled third-base coaching duties for the Jags helped USA lead the SBC in batting average (2015, '17) stolen bases (2010, '16) and runs scored (2016-17), and South Alabama led the league in home runs in 2017. Three Jags led the conference in triples, Clint Toomey (2007), Jeff DeBlieux (2013) – who also led the nation in the category that season – and Ethan Wilson (2021), two in stolen bases, Taylor White (2010) and Billingsley (2015-16), two in runs scored, Travis Swaggerty (2017) and Michael Sandle (2021), while Swaggerty led the SBC in RBIs in 2017 and Jordan Patterson led the conference in doubles in 2013. South Alabama also ranked third nationally in sacrifice bunts in 2021.

"I'm honored that Coach Kittrell wanted me to be a part of his staff, and then the change was made and Coach (Mark) Calvi came in and he asked me to be part of his staff as well. I am just honored that two people of that level wanted me to be a part of what they were doing. I don't know if there is anyone who loves the game any more than I do, and I don't think there is anyone who loves the kids more than I do. It was just an opportunity for me that I couldn't pass either time. 

"It was really fun in 2013 to see things start to turn for the better, which was the regional team that played at Mississippi State in the NCAA postseason that year. The biggest and best moment to me was, unquestionably, 2021 going to the Gainesville regional; losing the first game to Miami (Fla.) 1-0 then turning around and beating Florida 19-1, eliminating Miami then beating South Florida in the first game of the finals before we dropped the last one that would have sent us to Texas to play in the first Super Regional in the school's history. We were right there, and it was certainly very exciting for our kids and the program."

Eighteen Jaguar position players, including nine infielders, were selected in the Major League Baseball Draft during Luckie's tenure. Brendan Donovan, who was drafted in 2018, made his MLB debut earlier in the 2022 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, while Swaggerty made his MLB debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates as well in 2022 and Patterson reached the major leagues with the Colorado Rockies in 2016.

"It's always been about the teaching aspect and the relationship aspect with these kids. I still get phone calls from guys who played for me the first year I was there in the 2007 season. That's what makes it so special. I think sometimes you can teach the game, and through teaching the game the kids pick up that you probably care a little bit about them and you're willing to help them in any and every way that you can. I certainly enjoy and take pride in that to this day, and I hope that continues for another 20 years."

Reynolds, who has served as the Jaguar first-base coach the past two seasons, played collegiately at Young Harris College as a shortstop from 2017-19 where he helped lead the program to its first-ever Peach Conference tournament title in 2019 along with an NCAA regional appearance. Prior to Young Harris, Reynolds lettered at East Mississippi Community College where he was a member of the program's 2015 regional team. He prepped at Pascagoula High School in Pascagoula, Miss., and helped PHS capture the 2014 state championship. 

Reynolds began his coaching career at Southwest Mississippi Community College, and served there from 2019-20 as infield coach while also assisting hitters and recruiting. He served as a graduate assistant at South Alabama in the 2021 and '22 seasons, and handled first base coaching duties. Reynolds received his bachelor's degree in economics from Young Harris, and earned his master's degree in sports management from South Alabama in 2022. 

"Corley has all of the qualities that I would look for in someone to hire," Calvi said. "He has a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm, and is super reliable. That's so important in today's day and age; you have to have reliable, capable people around you. I was fortunate in that, with Corley being a graduate assistant here, I had a two-year window so he really had a two-year interview. I knew with Alan's retirement that it could happen – he's talked the last few years about it with his daughters having grandchildren. Nothing lasts forever and all good things must come to an end, and it's very applicable to this scenario. 

"I knew by the end of the fall last year, Corley's first year, that if Alan were to ever retire that Corley had shown me enough – he's a sharp guy who is very impressive when you're around him day in and day out like I am. He's very capable of doing that job, and he learned from Alan. Alan had the infielders and team defense, and coached third and Alan knew his coaching day may have been numbered and took Corley under his wing a little bit more. He told me in the fall last year that if he decided to retire that Corley is your guy. We were just fortunate enough that Corley was right here with us as a graduate assistant. He was given responsibility when he was here and handled it with flying colors. This is a lot more responsibility and a bigger job, but he's as sharp and bright of a young coach as I've ever been around, and he has a super bright future in this industry."

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