The Lafayette Aviators have announced that Jamie Sailors will serve as the team’s field manager for the 2023 season. Sailors returns to the Prospect League after having previously coached four seasons with the Danville Dans (2005, 2006, 2012 and 2013). His 2006 Danville team recorded a 41-19 record, the second-best regular season record in the history of the Prospect League.
Sailors served as Purdue’s pitching coach from 2006 through 2008. He coached at UWPlatteville from 2001 through 2005. A number of Sailors’ former players have gone on to play in the Major Leagues, including Mitch Moreland, Danny Worth, Louis Coleman, Tanner Roark, and Josh Lindblom, among others.
“We are very fortunate to have someone with Jamie’s background and success in the Prospect League to lead our organization,” said Aviators General Manager David Krakower.
Sailors was a 13th-round selection by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1992 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft after playing one season at Parkland College in Champaign, IL. In 1993, Sailors finished second in the league in strikeouts while pitching for the Johnson City Cardinals of the Appalachian League.
“I would like to thank the Aviators ownership and David Krakower for the opportunity to lead the Aviators in 2023,” said Sailors. “The Prospect League is a highly competitive summer college league, and I am looking forward to the competition. We will put together the best roster we possibly can to compete for a championship.”
Sailors earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education teaching from Purdue in 1999 and went on to obtain his master’s in education at UW-Platteville in 2003. He presently teaches physical education with the Logansport Community School Corporation. Sailors and his wife, Sarah, have three children, Ryne, Brooks, and Madisen.