By David Merrill

sports@marshall

independent.com

MARSHALL – Tanner Neale and Bryan Nikkel will finally be able to wear the same uniform at the same time.

The two former Southwest Minnesota State catchers will both be coaching at Luther College this upcoming season.

Nikkel offered Neale the assistant coaching job in mid-July.

Neale did take the time to look around at other schools’ assistant coaching job offers, but just like when he came to SMSU, his heart and his mind were made up.

“I looked at a few other schools out of courtesy and he told me to take my time with it, but I knew where I wanted to go,” Neale said.

Neale met Nikkel when he was just 8 years old when Neale’s two older brothers were going through the program and were teammates with Nikkel.

Nikkel made the offer after Neale had finished a coaching internship in Nevada, Missouri that same summer.

Neale had helped coach his team to a division title and came up just short of winning the league title.

They lost by one run on a walk-off hit.

Nikkel knew right away that Neale was someone he wanted on his staff.

They’ve known each other long enough to know the other’s personality.

“Tanner knows a lot about me and I know a lot about him, so we were able to skip that whole training process,”Nikkel said. “He’s done a great job already. The guys have really responded well to him and his coaching style.”

The fact that Neale is able to continue to expand his coaching resume came as no surprise to SMSU baseball coach Paul Blanchard.

Neale displayed plenty of attributes that make a successful coach when playing for Blanchard at SMSU.

“He has good instincts and a high baseball IQ,” Blanchard said. “He has a pretty good idea of what pitchers are going to throw on any given day, and he’s a good communicator.”

For Neale, coaching has been all about reading people and picking up on tendencies and how to approach certain issues.

He knows not to approach all problems the same way.

“You have to know when you can get on a guy a little more and when you have to back off and ease into it,” Neale said. “You can’t throw four things at a guy in one day and expect him to get it.”

Nikkel is in his second year at Luther College and also has Jeremy Ische on his staff. Ische was a graduate assistant at SMSU 2012-14.