In Jim Blair's tenure as recruiting coordinator, hitting coach and outfield coach, the Bearkats have produced the three best team batting averages and the top four season hitting totals in school history.
Sam Houston has rolled up a 132-109 record, three Southland post-season tournament titles and three NCAA regional appearances. The Kats produced an SHSU and Southland Conference record .335 mark in 2008. Prior to Blair's arrival, the school record for a season was .315 in 1980.
The past four seasons, the Bearkat offense has set 22 school records.
Blair's hitters have been named All-Southland Conference a total of 17 times. Eight have been recognized as SLC All-Tournament nine times. Two hitters (Bobby Verbick in 2007 and Todd Sebek in 2008) have earned NCAA Division I All-America honors. Verbick also was named 2008 Southland tournament MVP.
Braeden Riley led the NCAA in total hits last year with a Southland record 111. In fact, the top four players in hits in one season in the SLC record book are Bearkats. Keith Stein (103 hits in 2007), Sebek (101 in 2008) and Nick Zaleski (99 in 2009) rank second, third and fourth, respectively. The Kats set the league mark for hits in a season by one team with 740.
Blair served four years as an assistant coach at the University of Texas-San Antonio where he worked as hitting, outfield, and third base coach. He coached two NCAA Division I All-Americans at UTSA and guided the Roadrunner hitters to a Southland Conference best 55 home runs in 2004. In 2005, UTSA hit a school record 30 triples to rank in the top 10 nationally.
Blair was a top hitter for Baylor, compiling a .335 career average as a three-year starter for Steve Smith. Blair earned a bachelor's degree in health and human performance at Baylor in 2000. He and his wife, Pamela Ann, have three children, Carson, Andrew and Reid .
