Johnstown grad to coach Wake Forest baseball

By ERIC KNOPSNYDER
The Tribune-Democrat

JOHNSTOWN June 15, 2009 12:13 am

— There aren’t many things that will pull Tom Walter from the Dee Dee Osborne Showcase Camp.
Being named the head baseball coach at Wake Forest? OK, that will do it, but only temporarily.
Walter, a Johnstown High graduate and former MVP of the Johnstown Junior League, is back in his hometown for the camp he traditionally does with the Trojans’ head coach. Walter will be at the camp on Tuesday, fly to Winston-Salem, N.C., for his introductory press conference and return to Johnstown for the camp on Thursday.
“I can’t miss this camp,” Walter said. “Dee Dee and I have been doing this camp for a long time.”
Leaving the University of New Orleans also wasn’t an easy decision for Walter, but the chance to coach Demon Deacons was one he couldn’t resist.
“The school recruits itself. It’s a great academic institution,” Walter said Sunday night. “It’s a really unique place. It’s a beautiful campus. They’ve got an athletic director that has a great vision for the athletic department and the baseball program. It’s a pretty neat situation.”
The fact that Wake Forest competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference also was a big draw for Walter.
“In the College World Series there are two ACC teams,” he said. “As a college coach, the ultimate goal is take a team to Omaha (for the College World Series). Out of that league you stand a better chance.”
Walter helped lead the University of New Orleans out of the darkest time in its history.
Not only did the baseball team survive in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of the city, Walter helped it thrive. The Privateers made the NCAA tournament in 2007 and 2008 and captured a Sun Belt tournament title in 2007.
But it wasn’t easy.
“It wasn’t without effort,” Walter said. “It was a tumultuous time to say the least.
“Recruiting was difficult,” Walter said. “There were recruits that chose to leave because their parents didn’t want them to be in that city. Just the fact that we were able to field a team was a tribute to the university and the team. The kids that stuck with us were a pretty tough group. They weren’t worried about being behind on the scoreboard after going through something like that. To have that kind of success says a lot about our players and our mind-set and about their toughness.
University of New Orleans Athletic Director Jim Miller was quick to praise Walter for the job he did at the school.
“Tom Walter is the epitome of what an athletic director is looking for in a head coach,” Miller told The (New Orleans) Times Picayune. “He has the great ability to know all aspects of success, whether it’s academics or athletics or recruiting. Tom has been a great asset for UNO over the years. But we always knew at some point the opportunity might come that would give him a better opportunity.”
That came with Wake Forest and now Walter, who has a career record of 428-331 that includes seven years at George Washington, will be leaving for North Carolina, but it won’t be easy.
“It’s always tough to leave your players,” he said. “It’s always tough to leave the people that have been supportive along the way. I’ll never be able to thank them enough.