Jeff Tam New Baseball Coach & Intramural Director

June 21, 2012, Melbourne, FL - Brevard Community College today announced the hiring of former Major League Baseball pitcher Jeff Tam as head coach of its baseball team and director of its new intramural athletics program.

Tam succeeds Ernie Rosseau who became head coach in 1980 and amassed a record of 735 wins, including two state championships and 517 losses. Tam was pitching coach and chief assistant coach under Rosseau for one season and served as interim head coach after Rosseau stepped down in March.

Tam will be assisted by Oscar Restrepo and Jose Soto.

Athletic Director Jeff Carr welcomes Tam’s appointment.

“I am very excited to have Jeff Tam on board as our new baseball coach and our intramural director,” Carr said. “Jeff is a great teacher of the game. We are fortunate to have him.

“He will carry on the legacy of a great baseball program that Jack Kenworthy and Ernie Rosseau established over their tenures as head coaches. Jeff Tam has many experiences as a big leaguer that he can share with his players and also has many contacts to help our young men move on as student-athletes to the next level. Jeff is a hard worker and a fantastic person."

Tam played six seasons in the big leagues, appearing in relief for the New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays. He pitched 271.1 innings in 251 games with a won-loss record of 7-14, seven saves and a 3.91 earned run average.

Tam reached the major league after being signed as an undrafted free agent. He pitched collegiately at Florida State University and scholastically at Melbourne’s Eau Gallie High.

“I’m very excited,” Tam said. “After the short time I was under Coach Rosseau I feel this is the level where I belong.”

His style will be straightforward.

“I’m very firm but I’m very fair,” he said. “Do what I ask you to do, hustle, be on time. I like to keep a very loose atmosphere but yet if they aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing I drop the hammer on them so to speak.

“It’s a state of mind baseball. It’s a very mental game. If they are mentally prepared then you cut them loose and let them play. All your work gets done in practice. The game is to enjoy and implement what you worked on.”

Fitness also plays a major role.

“I love the weight room,” he said. “I think strength is huge moving through the ranks in the different levels and divisions. Even getting into pro ball it plays a huge part.”

Baseball holds an informal fall season and begins its competition in the Florida College System Activities Association in January. BCC plays half its regular-season games in the rugged Southern Conference against Palm Beach State, Indian River State, Miami-Dade and Broward.

In his other duties Tam will oversee three intramural sports — basketball, volleyball and flag football — that begin this fall on the Melbourne campus.

Tam and his family — wife Monica, a teacher, and children, Darian, 11, and Addison, 6 — live in Melbourne.