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 Western Carolina baseball volunteer coach, Grant Achilles. |
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Aug. 28, 2007
Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina's first-year head baseball coach Bobby Moranda today announced the addition of former Wake Forest captain Grant Achilles as a volunteer assistant coach, with current undergraduate Bruce Johnson joining the group as a student assistant.
"Adding both Grant (Achilles) as a volunteer coach and Bruce (Johnson) as our student assistant will help our program," said Moranda. "I recruited Grant to Wake Forest not only because he was a solid baseball player, but he was a terrific individual from a great family. He has a great work ethic that fits here in Cullowhee. Much like the rest of the guys on my staff, our players will enjoy working with Grant and he will work hard to continue the Catamount tradition."
Achilles joins the Catamount coaching staff from Charlotte where he spent one season working with the 49er catchers, assisting with the defense and hitters, as well as coaching first base. He worked with Kris Rochelle, who was named first team All-Atlantic-10 and to the all-tournament team at catcher, and was later drafted in the 22nd round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Detroit Tigers. With Achilles on staff, Charlotte enjoyed one of its most successful seasons in history finishing with a school-record 49 wins and ranked as high as 19th in the country. The 49ers advanced to the NCAA Baseball Regional in Columbia, S.C., breaking 11 school seasonal records.
A native of Lynchburg, Va., Achilles has coached in the summer wooden bat leagues. As an assistant coach in 2006, he helped the Thunder Bay Border Cats to a Northwoods League runner-up finish and last season was the associate head coach of the Wilmington Sharks of the Coastal Plains League (CPL) coaching defense and hitting, and third base. Two Sharks were named CPL All-Stars under the tutelage of Achilles.
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Achilles was a first team All-Region and All-State selection as a junior and senior at Heritage High, helping to lead his team to a Region III Championship and berth in the Virginia state title game. He was also an Academic All-State selection for three years. During American Legion play, he batted .495 for Post 16 with 27 stolen bases in 2001, the same year he was named MVP of the World Youth Classic Championship.
Moranda is very familiar with the Achilles family as he recruited both Grant and his older brother, Todd Achilles, to Wake Forest while an assistant coach in Winston-Salem.
Johnson is an undergraduate transfer at Western Carolina, coming to Cullowhee after spending one year playing baseball at South Atlantic Conference-member Newberry College in South Carolina and most recently at Pitt Community College in Greenville, N.C. As a true freshman at Newberry, Johnson hit just under .200 with a pair of doubles and a home run with eight RBI in 27 games.
Each of the past two summers, Johnson has helped coach the Morehead City Post 46 Hurricanes American Legion baseball team. Last year, the squad posted a team all-time best record of 29-5 which came on the heels of a 2006 American Legion State Championship and third-place finish in the south regional in 2006.
A graduate of West Carteret High School in Morehead City, N.C., Johnson hit .440 during his senior year with five home runs and 38 RBI helping his squad to a final record of 22-4. He was a two-time, all-conference selection and earned All-State accolades as a senior. In the classroom, Johnson was a member of the WCHS National Honor Society and was awarded the school's Academic Achievement Award in 2004.
