TYSON PETERSHEIM

Director of Hitting Development / Scouting Assistant

Tyson Petersheim enters his seventh season (2027) on the Virginia Tech baseball staff, having joined Szefc's staff prior to the 2020 season. He primarily assists Virginia Tech offensive coaches Kurt Elbin and Tyler Hanson in preparing baserunning plans and defensive shifting/positioning for the Hokies to utilize during practices and competitions.

Additionally, Petersheim oversees the preparation of small game applications implemented by the coaching staff at practices. His contributions led to Virginia Tech's offense achieving an enormity of success during its historic 2022 season, highlighted by the team's ACC Coastal Division and NCAA Blacksburg Regional championships.

JOSH REYNOLDS

Director of Pitching Performance / Baseball Analytics

Josh Reynolds enters his first season (2027) on the Virginia Tech baseball coaching staff, having been hired into the role of director of pitching performance, baseball analytics in June 2026. An established mind in the game with a plethora of power conference coaching experience, he joined the Hokies after spending the previous two seasons at Tennessee where he served as assistant coach (2026) as well as director of baseball operations and pitching performance (2025).

Reynolds – who coached alongside Szefc on Brad Hill’s 2011 and 2012 staffs at Kansas State – was the associate head coach (2016-21) and interim head coach (2021-22) at Northwestern prior to syncing with Cincinnati as assistant coach in 2024.

As a player, Reynolds was a three-year right-handed pitcher at Central Missouri where he set the career record for victories (32), highlighted by his 12-win campaign as a junior in 2000. After leading the Mules consecutively during the 1999 and 2000 seasons in innings pitched, strikeouts and wins, he was named to the 2000 ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division II All-American First Team on his way to his 2007 induction into the Central Missouri Athletic Hall of Fame.

A coveted pitching prospect, Reynolds was selected at No. 95 overall by the New York Mets during the third round of the 2000 MLB Draft. Through his four minor league seasons, he logged 79 career professional appearances, totaling 21 wins and 211 strikeouts spanning 295 and two-third innings pitched.

RICH WITTEN

General Manager / Director of Baseball Operations

Rich Witten enters his first season (2027) on the Virginia Tech baseball coaching staff, having been hired into the role of general manager, director of baseball operations in July 2026. He is tasked with running the Hokies' comprehensive, day-to-day cadence, including the oversight of English Field and its accompanying baseball facilities.

An esteemed leader in the game, Witten joins the Hokies following his four-year tenure as the head baseball coach at Florida International, where he led the Panthers in 2025 to their highest single-season wins total (31) since 2017. Returning to the ACC and the Commonwealth of Virginia, he previously served on the coaching staff at VCU from 2018 to 2022 as the Rams’ hitting coach and recruiting coordinator while harvesting earlier coaching experience at Miami (2014).

As a student-athlete, Witten crafted a .316 career batting average at Coastal Carolina from 2008 to 2012, ranking at graduation among the Chanticleers’ all-time greats in career doubles (50 – seventh) and RBIs (158 – sixth). Named to the 2012 All-Big South Second Team, the co-captain and infielder competed in five NCAA Regionals (2008-12) and two NCAA Super Regionals (2008, 2010).

KYLE STAGGERS

Director, Sports Medicine - Baseball

Kyle Staggers enters his 14th year at Virginia Tech and his ninth season (2027) as director of sports medicine for the baseball program. For more than a decade, he has tended to the physical health of Virginia Tech student-athletes, assuring they are game-ready and/or are pursuing quick paths back to the playing field.

Staggers received his bachelor's degree from Florida State in 2013 prior to pursuing his master's degree at Virginia Tech, during which he served as a graduate assistant in the sports medicine department. He has previously served as the head athletic trainer for the Virginia Tech track & field and cross country programs, in addition to working with the football program.

Among his primary roles, Staggers is part of the Virginia Tech sports medicine staff that strives to provide the most efficient and effective interdisciplinary care available to help prevent and manage athletics-related injuries or illnesses. Treatment of these conditions will be based on sound medicinal principles considering personal and team goals, always delivered in a professional and ethical environment.

ANDREW STONE

Director, Strength & Conditioning - Olympic Sports

Andrew Stone enters his sixth career year at Virginia Tech, having returned to his alma mater in August 2024 to his role as the director of strength and conditioning for the baseball program. He oversees the Hokies' strength and conditioning needs for peak performance on the diamond while also serving the Virginia Tech wrestling program within the athletic department.

Prior to his second run at Virginia Tech, Stone served as the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the football program at Memphis, where he assisted the Tigers in achieving four straight bowl game appearances, plus a 10-win season during 2023. Before then, he worked with the Carolina Panthers during the 2019 NFL season as a yearlong strength and conditining intern.

Stone graduated with his bachelor's degree from Virginia Tech in 2016 and immediately pursued a strength and conditioning internship with the Hokies. From his role as graduate assistant serving Virginia Tech's Olympic sports, he earned promotion to assistant strength and conditioning coach for the baseball and wrestling programs, completing his master's degree in 2019.

GARY BENNETT, Ph.D.

Senior Associate Athletics Director, Clinical and Sport Psychologist

Dr. Gary Bennett began his Virginia Tech tenure in 2000 and has shaped the Hokies' sport psychology program for more than two decades. He provides individual counseling to student-athletes and works with teams to improve cohesion and performance.

Bennett also coordinates the CAMP program (Counseling and Athletic Mental Performance) and oversees ADHD and substance misuse programming.

Virginia Tech was the first school in the ACC to hire a full-time sport psychologist and today has expanded the staff within he CAMP unit. Led by Bennett, the staff provides individual counseling for those with mental health needs and also conducts team sessions and mindfulness workshops.

MIKE SWANHART

Associate Director, Student-Athlete Academic Support Services

Mike Swanhart is the academic coordinator for the Virginia Tech baseball team and oversees the department's study hall program. He arrived at Virginia Tech in 2008 after interning in a similar role at Florida Atlantic.

Swanhart is part of Virginia Tech's staff of 14 full-time directors and coordinators who work in the Student-Athlete Academic Support Services (SAASS) offices — all of whom are devoted to helping student-athletes graduate with the degree of their choosing. The SAASS staff provides tutoring services, holds study halls, keeps student-athletes enrolled in proper courses and works with professors across campus to ensure student-athletes are on track academically.

MIKE SKOVAN

Associate Director, Creative Communications

Mike Skovan enters his sixth season (2027) on the Virginia Tech baseball support staff, serving on the athletic department's creative/strategic communications team as associate director. He possesses more than a decade of media relations experience within collegiate baseball, having made his way to Virginia Tech in 2021 following his seven-year run with the Northeastern baseball program.

EVAN HUGHES

Assistant Director of Broadcast Services / Baseball Radio Play-by-Play

Evan Hughes enters his sixth season (2027) as the radio play-by-play voice of the Virginia Tech baseball program for broadcasts airing on the Virginia Tech Sports Network. Often the featured emcee at baseball events, he also serves as the radio play-by-play voice of the Virginia Tech women's basketball program.

Hughes has been on the mic for some of the most iconic moments during both programs' recent history. In baseball, he called Virginia Tech's 2022 ACC Coastal Division title-clinching season and ensuing journey through the 2022 NCAA Blacksburg Regional and Super Regional - in women's basketball, he covered every minute of the Hokies' run to the 2023 NCAA Women's Final Four.

Beginning as a fill-in radio and television broadcaster for Virginia Tech baseball in 2018, Hughes has seen first-hand the transformation of the program during John Szefc's head coaching tenure in Blacksburg. Many baseball student-athletes have appeared on the Hokie Sports Insider podcast he hosts during the athletic year. 

Beyond his work at Virginia Tech, Hughes was the director of radio broadcasting for the St. Cloud Rox in the Northwoods League, where he called 186 games during a three-season span. He was named the 2018 Northwoods League Broadcaster of the Year and went on to receive the 2021 Jim Nantz Award as the nation's most outstanding collegiate sports broadcaster.