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Pleasants Experiences First MVP Trip
by Brad | August 11, 2022

Pleasants Experiences First MVP Trip

Long-time high school coach, who pitched in 1983 College World Series, aided Europe staff
By David Driver, MVP Communications

WASHINGTON – Dave Pleasants has reached the highest level in some phases of his baseball career as a player and coach.

He was a pitcher for a JMU team in 1983 that went to the College World Series in Omaha and he got the opportunity to face powerhouse Texas, the eventual national champion.

As an assistant high school coach in Northern Virginia, Pleasants helped mold two future Major League players from Westfield High: former Marlins’ slugger Justin Bour and Brandon Snyder, a versatile player who strung together a career with five teams.

But until last month, Pleasants had never been to central Europe – and for his initial excursion he was afforded the chance to work as a coach for a 16U team that played in Austria, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic as part of MVP International.

“It was quite the experience,” says Pleasants, a graduate of McLean High in Northern Virginia. “What was great was just the whole atmosphere and getting to meet the families of the kids we were playing against. They were very gracious and very glad to have American families come over and play their kids.”

“We got to have a meal with each club team at each stop along the way,” he added. “They take a lot of pride in baseball. For the most part they are a small community of people (in Europe) and they have to build the fields themselves. They were nice facilities considering baseball is not their main sport over there. Especially in Regensburg, Germany, where they played, the field was beautiful. It was a real nice setup, like an American minor league park. We used a side field which was really nice, too.”

Along with fellow coach Justin Counts, Pleasants worked with 16U players on the trip. MVP International also sent a 12U and 21U squad.

“We were actually coaching together,” Pleasants said of Counts, an assistant at James Madison High in Virginia and former independent league player. “We did everything with all of them together. I would hit groundballs and flyballs to the outfielders. They were mainly JV-type kids or rising ninth and 10th graders. Every kid played every inning since we had nine players.”

Off the field, Pleasants and his wife, Alice, enjoyed the tourist stops.

“Prague was beautiful; we also enjoyed Vienna and Salzburg in Austria. I like World War II history so I enjoyed the Eagle’s Nest in Germany,” he noted.

 

Dave Pleasants and his wife, Alice, made their first trip with MVP International last month to Europe.
He was a member of the 1983 College World Series team with JMU as a pitcher and he pitched against Texas in Omaha that year.

 

Pleasants and his wife were urged to go on their first trip with MVP International – a leader in youth sports overseas travel – by Founder & Visionary Mark “Pudge” Gjormand. They have known each other for nearly 30 years.

“When I became the head coach at McLean High School, soon after that he became the coach at Madison High School after he had been the assistant at Dean Sissler at Marshall High School,” Pleasants said of Gjormand. “So, I have known him for a pretty long time. Pudge came to Madison in 1996 and we were in the old Liberty District together. I have coached with him the past two years in the Northern Virginia Collegiate League and he has been trying to get me to go to Europe.”

Pleasants was an assistant coach at West Springfield High under Ron Tugwell, who won more than 400 games and sent several players to the pro and college level. One of those players was Joe Saunders, a lefty who pitched in the majors and won 92 games. From 1994 to 2000, Pleasants was the coach at McLean High, where he is in the school’s athletic Hall of Fame.

In addition, Pleasants was later a pitching coach at Westfield under Chuck Welch during a time two players eventually made the majors. In the classroom, Pleasants taught math for several years in Fairfax County, Virginia.

First baseman Bour went on to play at George Mason University and was drafted by the Cubs. He hit 92 homers in the majors while playing for the Cubs, Phillies, and Angels.

Infielder Snyder was drafted out of Westfield by the Orioles in the first round in 2005 and played in the Show for Baltimore, Texas, Boston, Atlanta, and Tampa Bay.

He ended his playing career in the minors with Washington and has been a bullpen catcher for the Nationals. His father, Brian, pitched at Clemson and in the majors for Seattle and Oakland.

In the 1983 College World Series, Pleasants came out of the bullpen late in a game that Texas won 12-0. It was the first time a school from Virginia made it to the CWS. A catcher for Texas was Jeff Hearron, who played for Toronto in 1985-86.

“The guys I played with, we are still in touch, we still get together,” Pleasants said of that JMU team. “I was a small part of that; I was kind of along for the ride and enjoyed it. Looking back, that was a pretty good accomplishment. That was the first time I flew – we flew to Omaha. It was crazy; we were in Omaha playing Roger Clemens and Texas and all of that stuff.”

And now Pleasants has another baseball experience to share – his time in Europe this summer on a five-game tour against club teams.

Gjormand was glad to have Pleasants on the most recent MVP International trip. “I have a lot of respect for him,” Gjormand said of Pleasants.

Editor’s note: David Driver is the former sports editor of papers in Arlington and Harrisonburg in Virginia and Laurel and Baltimore in Maryland. He can be reached at @DaytonVaDriver and www.daytondavid.com. His book, “From Tidewater to The Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s rich baseball legacy,” written along with Lacy Lusk of Baseball America, is available on Amazon.

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