John Byington
Head Coach

It’s not an easy task to take over a baseball program if the previous coach was as successful as Lee Driggers was at McMurry, but John Byington stepped right in his first year at the helm of the baseball program leading them to a 26-17 record and the school’s 11th appearance in the American Southwest Conference Tournament. 

One of the highlights in Byington’s first year was leading McMurry to the longest winning streak in the program’s illustrious history when McMurry won 12-straight games from March 21 through April 10.   He also saw seven players earn all-ASC recognition while senior second baseman Tre Lips and sophomore right fielder Jake Mullin earned American Baseball Coaches Association all-West Region honors. 

Byington, 41, was originally hired at McMurry in June of 1998 as an assistant coach on Driggers’ staff.  He served as an assistant coach from 1998-2007 before he was promoted to associate head coach for the 2008 season and took over when Driggers resigned following the 2008 campaign.  

McMurry is Byington’s first head-coaching job at the college level, however, he already has head coaching experience when he was head coach of the Athletes in Action Fire, which competed in the summer collegiate Alaska Baseball League.  He guided the Fire to a 26-15 record and a championship in the six-team league.

Byington began coaching as a student assistant at Texas A&M University during the 1996 and 1997 seasons.  He then moved on to Schreiner University, where he was a volunteer assistant during the 1998 season.

Byington first made his mark during his playing days as an all-American third baseman at Texas A&M from 1986-1989.  He is best remembered by Aggie fans for his clutch hitting in the 1989 season when he hit game-winning home runs (a grand slam and a three-run homer) in consecutive games against the University of Texas to lead the A&M to the Southwest Conference Championship.

After that famed 1989 season with the Aggies, the Milwaukee Brewers selected Byington in the third round of the Major League Baseball Draft, an organization where Byington spent six seasons.  He reached the Triple-A level with the Brewers before closing out his professional career with the Texas Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate, the Oklahoma City 89ers, in 1995.  For his seven-year minor-league career, Byington hit .279 with 54 homers, 473 RBI and 177 doubles.

Byington earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M in 1994.  He is also a 1986 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown, Texas.

Byington is a devout Christian and attends Beltway Park Baptist Church in Abilene.

Byington and his wife, Kimi, have been married for 18 years.  They have three children -- a daughter Raegan (13), and sons Wade (11) and Cason (8). 

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