A former MLB player who coached a nationally ranked collegiate team and a returning longtime teacher and former coach will lead the baseball and softball programs at Charles Henderson High School next year.

The Troy City Board of Education of Monday approved the hire of Gregory “Boo” Mullins as history teacher head baseball coach and Robin Snyder as an elementary physical education teacher and head softball coach.

“I’m excited,” said Mullins, who was in Troy on Monday prior to the board meeting. “I met a few people (Monday) at the ball field and I can see they’re really excited about baseball … maybe more so than any place I’ve been.”

Mullins comes to CHHS from Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, Ga., where he was head baseball coach since 2009 and, since 2014, also the athletic director.

He is a native of Palatka, Fla., and pitched for two years at St. Johns River Community College before transferring to the University of North Florida. After college he signed with the Milwaukee Brewers organization, playing with the club from 1995-1999. During his three years in the minor leagues, he amassed 55 career saves. He made his MLB debut on Sept. 18, 1998, and was a participant in the historic home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

He began his coaching career in 2003 as a pitching coach at UNF, where the pitching staff amassed a 3.69 ERA. He was an assistant coach for the Georgia Stars, a premier high school summer baseball club, helping guide the team to two national champions.

In 2005, he was named head baseball coach at Nease High School in St. Augustine, Fla., where he led teams to the FHSAA regional finals in both seasons and the state semifinals in 2005. He went from there to University Christian School in Jacksonville, Fla., before joining the Brewton-Parker staff in 2007.

While at Brewton-Parker, his teams were ranked nationally and qualified for post-season play six of seven years, including a conference championship and regional runner-up. He was named the Southern States Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2014, BPC Coach of the Year in 2013 and Georgia NAIA Coach of the Year in 2010.

During his career he coached current Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Tim Tebow and MLB players Ben Revere of the Philadelphia Phillies and Brad Peacock of the Houston Astros. He has recruited, signed and coach 13 current minor league players.

“I want to make an impact on these young kids’ lives,” Mullins said Monday. “I feel like it’s my calling.”

CHHS, he said, has “a good, rich tradition and I just want to keep it going … I feel like I have big shoes to fill and with back-to-back state championships and another runner-up, that’s a tribute to the whole program, from rec department to middle school to junior varsity.”

Mullins said a key focus of his work as a coach is preparing players to be successful at the next level and in life. “I can promise the kids, the parents and the community that I’ll work 110 percent to put the school into the state championship, to help this kids graduate and to hopefully help them get to the next level as a player.”

More important, he said, “We’re going to prepare them to be successful men.”

Mullins graduated from Palatka High School in 1990. He and his wife, Shannon, have three children: Garrett, 12; Gabriele, 10, and Grace, 5.

Brent Harrison, CHHS principal, said he is excited about the breadth of experience Mullins brings to the Trojan program. “He’s well-known and well respected,” Harrison said. “We have a lot of people to thank for helping us hire him. Coach (Mark) Smartt at Troy University, Coach Marty Lovirch at AUM, and Coach Steve Helms at LBW have helped us every step of the way.”

Harrison said he is also excited that Mullins will be working with an assistant coaching staff that includes two former CHHS baseball standouts: Jeremy Jones and William Teal. “It’s always good when you can bring your graduates back and have them involved in your program.”

Snyder, a graduate of Goshen High School and Troy University, returns to CHHS from Zion Chapel High School, where he was head softball coach. A longtime middle school football coach and assistant softball coach in the Charles Henderson system, Snyder was named head softball coach in 2011. He resigned in 2013.

“We’ve hired him to lead the program and we’re really excited to have him back in our system,” Harrison said.