Baseball: Georgetown's Wallace named Jags baseball coach (updated)

During the past 10 years, former Georgetown head baseball coach Danny Wallace found plenty of success managing the Eagles, including seven consecutive playoff berths and appearances in the regional finals in 2007 and 2008.

But that wasn't enough to keep Wallace in town when Flower Mound came knocking, as the Jaguars have named Wallace head coach following the recently departed Marte Amrine.

Wallace's familiarity with the Flower Mound program increased during the past three years as the Eagles defeated the Jaguars in 2010 in The Woodlands Tournament before the teams split meetings at the Ballpark in Arlington in 2011 and 2012.

"Coach Amrine and I actually talked and he thought it could be a good place for me," Wallace said. "I was familiar with Flower Mound after playing them the last three years and when I saw the opportunity, I thought it could be good fit. It's a great community with great parents and great athletes. Those were the main attractions."

Wallace will be returning to the Metroplex after graduating from Seagoville in 1985. After one season playing ball at Henderson State, Wallace walked on at the University of Texas, where he redshirted but never ended up playing in a game. The experience, however, got him into coaching.

"(Former Texas) Coach (Cliff) Gustafson was one of my boyhood idles," Wallace said. "I realized pretty early into my time at Texas that this was probably my last stop of playing baseball at that level. So I kind of went that direction and also had some of my former high school coaches that kind of pushed me into coaching."

After a stop at Lake Travis as an assistant for three years, Wallace got his first head coaching job at Hyde Park Baptist, a TAPPS school in Austin. From there, Wallace spent six seasons at Class 2A Hutto, including taking the Hippos to state in 1998, before heading to Pflugerville Connally for two seasons and eventually landing at Georgetown, where he has spent the past 10 years, claiming district titles in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

"Georgetown was great to me," Wallace said. "But when I came up here and met coach (Dane) Johnson and (assistant athletic director) coach (Cristie) Liles, I really liked both of them and that kind of sealed the deal. I can't wait to work with both of them."

Flower Mound's success on the diamond was a big part of the decision as well.

"That made the situation even more attractive," Wallace said. "After what we had accomplished at Georgetown, I wasn't interested in kind of starting at the bottom and fixing a program. I wanted to go to a situation where I thought I could come right in and we would be ready to compete."

Wallace added the prospects of coaching only baseball added to the interest.

"Having coached football for 22 years and knowing the time commitment that takes, I'm pretty excited to get to spend the summer with my kids," he said. "I've been an offensive coordinator before and have coached football at every stop I have been. I know what it takes, but I also know how much time it takes and how much responsibility there is. I'm happy that I get to focus on baseball and spend a little more time with my family."

On the field, Wallace will hammer home the importance playing in the field.

"We're going to hang our hats on pitching and defense," he said. "You can't advance to the high levels of baseball if you aren't sound in your pitching and defense. That's been my kind of trademark or m.o. everywhere I have gone.

"Offensively, we have to be able to manufacture runs. I'll always make adjustments to the roster and our style based on the talent we have, but one that will never change is playing defense and being able to bunt or hit-and-run. No matter how good of offense you have, you're going to run into pitchers that can shut you down and aren't going to give up five or six runs. You have to be able to manufacture runs."

Wallace is still in the process of selling his house and moving to Flower Mound. When in North Texas, he commutes from Grand Prairie, where he has family living.

"I played Tour 18 (golf course) one time about five years ago," he said. "But that was about the extent of my time in Flower Mound. But it's a great area and I really liked what I saw when I visited. I can't wait to get started."

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