Bryan Wyatt has spent a lot of time on the baseball diamond, both as a player and as a coach. He won his seventh Men’s Senior Baseball League World Series championship ring in October as a member of the San Antonio Bombers Baseball Club and coached the Panthers to the State Championship final in June.
Wyatt started playing with the San Antonio Bombers in 1996 at the age of 38. Seven of the team members, including Wyatt and six other players from San Antonio, have been the core players on the team. With a season that begins in March and ends with the World Series in October, the Bombers have participated in 720 games from 1997-2018. Their win/loss record is 564 wins/105 losses. The team won 13 regular season San Antonio Men’s Senior Baseball League City Championships in ‘02, ‘04, 2006-2010, 2012-2015, 2017 and 2018. The Bombers won nine Texas Cup State Championships in 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2018. The MSBL World Series is played in Phoenix, Arizona each year. The Bombers were finalist in the World Series Championships in 2004 and 2010, winning the MSBL World Series Championship in 2001 (Federal Div.), 2003 (Continental Div.), 2006, 2012, 2013, 2017, and 2018 (National Div.).
Wyatt plays second base and shortstop and pitches for the Bombers. He is the lead-off batter and averages 50 plus hit-by-pitch every year.
“I probably started playing baseball when I was about five," Wyatt said, "mostly in the San Antonio area. I played four years at John Jay High School.”
Following graduation from Jay in 1976, Wyatt played two years at San Antonio College, and with three more years of college eligibility, he played at Henderson State in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
His coaching career began at Maud High School, west of Texarkana, in 1982. He coached at the Conference 1A school, now a 2A school, for two years. In 1984 Wyatt returned to Henderson State for his Master’s degree. In 1985 he made the move to Blanco. In 1988 the Panthers were finalist in the 2A State Championship. In 2007 the Panthers were semi-finalists in conference 2A. This past June the Panthers were finalist in the 3A State Championship. Coach Wyatt begins his 35th year as the Panther’s head baseball coach this school year.
Following the high school season this year, Coach Wyatt was named Coach of the Year for District 25, an honor he has received “guessing 5-7 times”. He was also named Coach of the Year by the San Antonio Baseball Coaches Association. With that honor, Wyatt was asked to throw the first pitch at a San Antonio Missions game June 28. “Throwing the first pitch at the SA Missions game was a blast, a lot of pressure NOT to bounce it up there! But I threw a strike.” The Missions are a Minor League Baseball team in the Pacific Coast League and the Triple-A team affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Wyatt has played baseball for 40 years and has coached for 37 years. Regarding these dual roles as player and coach, Wyatt said, “I think still playing the game keeps me on my toes when coaching…in baseball there are hundreds of situations that can happen, and I have seen my share of them playing and coaching.”
Wyatt intends to continue to play and coach baseball indefinitely.
“The most important thing is that I can still go out and throw batting practice and ground balls to our kids,” he said. “It keeps me in great shape mentally and physically.”
