COACHES
JAMIE SAILORS
Field Manager
Jamie Sailors returns to the Prospect League to lead the Aviators after having previously coached four seasons with the Danville Dans (2005, 2006, 2012 and 2013). His 2006 Danville team recorded a 41-19 record, the second-best regular season record in the Prospect League.
Sailors served as Purdue’s pitching coach from 2006 through 2008. He coached at UW-Platteville from 2001 through 2005. A number of Sailors’ former players have gone on to play in the Major Leagues including Mitch Moreland, Danny Worth, Louis Coleman, Tanner Roark, and Josh Lindblom, among others.
Sailors was a 13th-round selection by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1992 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft after playing one season at Parkland College in Champaign, IL. In 1993, Sailors finished second in the league in strikeouts while pitching for the Johnson City Cardinals of the Appalachian League.
Sailors earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education teaching from Purdue in 1999 and went on to obtain his master’s in education at UW-Platteville in 2003. He presently teaches physical education with the Logansport Community School Corporation. Sailors and his wife, Sarah, have three children, Ryne, Brooks, and Madisen.
DEMERIS BARLOW
Assistant Coach
Demeris will be returning to the Avaitors for his second summer in Lafayette from Saginaw Valley State University where he’s serving as the team’s hitting and infield coach.
He played college baseball at both Indiana Tech University and Indiana University South Bend. Demeris graduated from IU South Bend in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing.
A native of Saginaw, he graduated from Bridgeport High School in 2015 as a three-sport athlete in football, basketball and baseball. In football he was a 2nd team All Conference defensive tackle. In baseball he was a 2-time 2nd team All Conference third basemen, setting a record for walks in a season his senior year.
MIKE MOKMA
Assistant Coach
Mike will be coming to the Aviators from Huntington University in Huntington, IN for his second summer in Lafayette. Mokma serves as the Pitching Coach at Huntington. In the spring of 2023, Mike was at South Christian High School in Grand Rapids, MI where he served as the Varsity Head Coach.
Mike played college baseball at Michigan State University where he spent 3 years as a starting pitcher. From there, he signed as a UDFA with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2019. After 3 seasons with the Dodgers, Mike went on to sign a Free Agent contract with the Seattle Mariners. He spent his last professional season with the Mariners High-A affiliate, the Everett AquaSox.
Mike finished his professional pitching career with a 3.32 career ERA. He is looking forward to sharing his baseball knowledge and skills with the Aviators pitching staff this season.