Baseball

Head Coach Jim Callahan

Head Coach Jim Callahan is now entering his 14th season with the Fighting Bees. The son of John and Jeanette Callahan, he hails from Sherrill, Iowa, where he attended Dubuque Hempstead High School. A 1992 graduate of St. Ambrose, he played football and baseball. Callahan then served as the pitching coach at Western Illinois under the legendary coach Dick Pawlow while earning a Master's of Science Degree.

In 1996, Callahan was hired as head baseball coach of the Fighting Bees and the results of his hiring immediately paid off. In his first year, Callahan led the Bees to a 42-17 record, winning the conference and regional titles in the process. The Bees finished second at the NAIA World Series as Callahan became the youngest coach to ever led a team to the World Series. That year, he was named Midwest Classic Coach of the Year and was voted Rawlings and Louisville Slugger's Region Coaches of the Year. Callahan repeated those honors again 2002 and 2003.

"I wish those awards would say Coaching Staff of the Year, I have always had outstanding coaches to work with. I couldn't have done anything without out people like Tony Huntley, Scott Motz, Brent Zaehringer, Bill Argo, Blake Hanna, David Yates, Andy Duyvejock, Christian Jackson, and Sean Johnson," Callahan said. "All of these coaches worked very hard to make St. Ambrose Baseball what it is today."

Over the past 15 seasons St. Ambrose Baseball has:

  • Won seven Midwest Classic Conference Championships

  • Won three Midwest Regional Championships

  • Finished in the 2nd and 3rd at the NAIA World Series

Fighting Bee players honors:

  • 13 All-Americans

  • 17 All-Region

  • 61 All-Conference

  • 112 Academic All-Conference

  • 54 Academic All-Region

  • 23 Academic All-American

  • Team GPA never below a 3.07

"Our success is because of quality student-athletes," Callahan said. "Earning that many honors doesn't happen by chance. It takes a dedicated group of young men willing to make sacrifices to achieve a desired outcome."

Jim and his wife Renee reside in Bettendorf with their three sons Jackson, Tyger and Gerald, and their two daughters Maylee and Kimbree.

Assistant Coach Tony Huntley

Tony Huntley hails from Rock Island, where he played four varsity seasons for Rock Island Alleman High School before going to Waubonsee Community College, where he was a two-time All-American. He then transferred to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), where he played under Don Kessinger (former Chicago Cubs shortstop).

In 1995, he came to St. Ambrose and played shortstop for the 1996 NAIA National Runner-up Fighting Bees. He was a two-time All-Conference member before graduating in 1996 with a Sport Management-Business degree. Coach Huntley then went on to play three seasons of professional baseball for the Evansville Otters, the Anderson Lawmen, DuBois County Dragons and 10 days with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at a Pre-Spring Training camp.

Coach Huntley also has coach a collegiate summer league team in the Chicago Suburban Baseball League for the past 4 years.  Coach Huntley is one of two field managers for the Chicago Wildcats Baseball Organization that travels throughout the Midwest region.

Now entering his eleventh season as Jim Callahan's Head Assistant, Coach Huntley is also the university's athletic facilities director. Coach Huntley graduated in May 2005 with his Masters in Organizational Leadership and he hopes to someday coach his own program at the collegiate level.

Tony and his wife Ellen (Grobarcik) reside in Eldridge, Iowa, with their 4 year old son Alexander Jacob (A.J.) Huntley and 1 year old son Maxwell Ryan Huntley and one dog, Chewie.