Meet The Coaches

Sam Firpo 

sam.firpo@district196.org

952-649-9838

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Coach Firpo is very excited to start a 4th season as Varsity Head Coach of your Apple Valley Eagles.  Sam is in his 11th year coaching Apple Valley baseball, having coached the Sophomore team for 2 years before becoming the Varsity Assistant Coach for 6 years.

Sam is originally from Puerto Rico where he spent his youth playing baseball until he was 19 years old.  He also coached the 15 year old team from Levittown, PR.  Sam continued coaching little league while he served in the US Air Force in Rapid City, South Dakota.  He has also been the Assistant Coach for the Apple Valley American Legion team, a coach for the Minnesota Mash, and he also is an assistant coach for the AV Volleyball team.

Sam has son, Justin, who currently attends and plays baseball at Winona State University, and a daughter, Katie, who is a Freshman at San Francisco State University

Jay Baker graduated from Coon Rapids High in 1993. Jay went onto to college at St. Catherines
graduating in 1995 with an AAS Degree in Occupational Therapy. Jay has traveled all over the
country working with variety of clients. Clients had a variety of medical issues including hip
fractures, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes. Occupational Therapy is designed to re-teach clients
the basics to complex. Along with this career Jay also followed his first love Baseball.
BASEBALL BACKGROUND Jay has coached all over the country with a variety of ages and
abilities including high school/college adult baseball leagues private lessons/group instruction.
His first coaching job was Tuscaloosa, Alabama at the age of 21 since then nearly 25 years
later he still has the itch to coach and train our young men of today. Here are a few of his
coaching stops:
--- Assistant Varsity Coach 2001-2003 Hampton Christian Academy 2002 State Championship
Title, 2004 Runner-up
---- Head JV Coach 2004 Hampton Christian
----- Minnesota Baseball Academy (Blizzard) Fall Ball Head Coach 14U
Private Lessons/Group training with Blizzard Baseball
---- 9th grade B squad
---- 9A Andover High School
---- Andover JV Head Coach
---- Legion Head Coach (Rosemount Mn):
---- RCTC Assistant Coach 2013-2016
Jay is married to his wife Jill and have 4 sons Drew, Daelin, Darin, Dalton.

tom.gallaher@district196.org

507-250-7402

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Coach Gallaher is looking forward to beginning his 6th year coaching at Apple Valley High School! During those 6 years Tom has coached both the 9th grade A and B teams consisting of 8th and 9th graders at different times throughout the years. Coach Gallaher watching the growth that players make from their 9thgrade days all the way through their Varsity careers! Tom is originally from the Chicago area and grew up playing baseball from Little League throughout high school, and he has also coached different youth teams in the Chicago area while living there. Tom is currently fortunate enough to continue playing baseball for the St. Paul Isotopes where he is a catcher and corner infielder. When it is not baseball season, Tom has found success both playing and coaching rugby throughout his college career, and has coached basketball and volleyball teams at Valley Middle School. Tom currently teaches 8th grade at Valley Middle School, and lives in St. Paul with his wife, Hilary, and daughter, Cecelia. 

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Coach Goodman enters his 4th season as an Eagle Assistant Baseball Coach.  The Fort Dodge, Iowa native has been a high school coach at Buchanan, Michigan, Fort Dodge, Iowa, The Blake school in Hopkins, and Lakeville South.  He has also coached at the college level at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Augsburg College in Minneapolis, and Bethel University in St Paul.

Goodman was a four-sport letterman at Fort Dodge Senior High in Iowa lettering in football, basketball, track and baseball.  He is a member of the school’s Hall of Fame.  He was also an All-state and All-American honorable mention football running back in high school.  He signed with the Cincinnati Reds professional baseball team upon graduating from high school and spent four seasons with them.  He was named to the Northern League All-star team.  After four years with the Reds, he then signed with the Minnesota Twins.  He spent three years with the Twins organization as an Outfielder.  Following his playing days, he served as an Associate Scout with the Kansas City Royals organization.

He has been a Human Resources professional in the Twin Cities with Land O Lakes, Pillsbury, ITT, and Rollerblade.  Goodman is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association and Minnesota High School Baseball Coaches Association.

Goodman has two sons and two daughters — Torre, Kris, Keisha, and Katie.  He and his wife, Dianne, make their home in Burnsville.

jhnmsanders@gmail.com

952-200-0566

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This is your Team Member description. Use this space to write a brief description of this person’s role and responsibilities, or add a short bio.

This is your Team Member description. Use this space to write a brief description of this person’s role and responsibilities, or add a short bio.