DALLAS-, Texas-During the 2024 annual ABCA Convention (America Baseball Coaches Association) at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Dallas, Texas this past weekend, Lee University Head Baseball Coach Mark Brew was presented the Dave Keilitz Ethics in Coaching Award which goes to an individual who embodies the ABCA Code of Ethics.
The ABCA believes that the highest calling of a baseball coach is to teach life's lessons and model the character traits of honesty, integrity, respect, and personal responsibility. The Ethics in Coaching Award was named in honor of Dave Keilitz in 2017. Keilitz is the former Central Michigan University head coach and Athletic Director, a member of the ABCA Hall of Fame, the ABCA Board of Directors, and served as the ABCA's Executive Director from 1994-2014.
"I've been blessed to have some great mentors in my life who have taught the right way to navigate this profession we call coaching," pointed out Brew. "My high school coach Pierre Lyons and my two collegiate coaches Elliott Johnson and Dave Altopp, who I also worked under for 13 years, taught me the value of hard work, treating people with respect, serving the sport, and creating a culture inside my program that fosters growth on and off the field.
"Additionally, I have been fortunate to have some great assistant coaches and mentors of our program that have held me accountable. I have been able to coach at a great institution at Lee University for 27 years that allows me the opportunity, with God's help, to impact our players much like I was impacted by my coaches."
Brew added, "Dave Keilitz has served our organization with integrity and class and is someone I have always looked up to and admired. To be honored with an award bearing his name is truly a humbling experience. The ABCA is the greatest coaching organization in the world, and I am honored to receive such a distinguished award."
Said Lee Athletic Director John Maupin., "I cannot think of a more fitting honor for Coach Brew than an award that represents ethics. For those of us that have been fortunate enough to spend time around Mark, you immediately recognize that he holds himself and his players to a high ethical standard. It has been a privilege for me to watch him impact his players year in and year out in this regard. We are very proud to have Coach Brew on our team at Lee University, and we want to congratulate him on this outstanding honor!"]
Coach Brew, who is entering his 18th season and is nearing 800 wins as the Lee head coach, is regrouping his coaching staff and team, getting them ready to return to the practice field and prepare for the season opener against a former Southern States Athletes Conference (SSAC) rival Southern Wesleyan University on Feb. 2.
