BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Tagertt Dillard has been on the field at Blue Bell Park before.
Decked out in Texas A&M baseball gear, some of which he was given by friends on the 2022 team, Dillard celebrated as the Aggies punched their ticket to the College World Series after eliminating Louisville in a super-regional sweep. Then in high school, Dillard vividly remembers taking a picture next to former Aggie pitcher Will Johnston while holding an oversized ticket advertising the Aggies’ admission to the College World Series in Omaha.
“That was fun,” Dillard told KBTX on Zoom from a hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee. “I would probably say that was my favorite [baseball] moment [in the Brazos Valley].”
This weekend, Dillard will return to Blue Bell Park as a member of the Oakland baseball team for a three-game series against the Aggies. It’s a baseball homecoming for both Dillard and his head coach, Brian Nelson, to a community that was instrumental in shaping their baseball futures.
“It’s, in every sense of the word, home,” Nelson said of the Brazos Valley.
Nelson first arrived in Bryan-College Station as a student at A&M. An injury cut his baseball career short at the Air Force Academy, so Nelson moved back to Texas, closer to his hometown of Bastrop, and finished his academic career at Texas A&M.
Not long after graduation, he got his first coaching gig as the head coach at Brazos Christian and as an assistant with the Brazos Valley Bombers. He took the Eagles to a state title game and helped the Bombers earn a summer collegiate league national championship. Nelson traveled away from the Brazos Valley for a stint, coaching at Mary Hardin-Baylor and Texas Rio Grande Valley before returning to serve as the Bombers’ head coach and then the commissioner of the Texas Collegiate League. The Bombers won three consecutive regular-season titles and two league championships during his tenure as head coach. He was also part of the ownership group of the organization before taking a job at Oakland.
“The College Station, Brazos Valley, Bryan area, in a sense, raised me and made me part of the man I am today. Got a lot of special and fond memories of the area and always will,” Nelson said.
Meanwhile, Nelson’s wife, Samantha, served as the director of the Lettermen’s Association at A&M.
Nelson developed a good relationship with former A&M baseball coach Rob Childress and his staff, who leaned on the Bombers to provide summer workouts for Aggies spending the summer in the Brazos Valley. Pro Aggies such as Johnston, Bryce Miller, Asa Lacy and Chandler Jozwiak played for the Bombers under Nelson.
During that time, Nelson brought on James Dillard, then head coach at Bryan High School, as an assistant. Dillard, a Bryan native and alumnus, was also a teacher at the high school, along with his wife, Stephanie. James Dillard would eventually go on to serve as the head coach of the Bombers when Nelson left for Oakland.
“[Nelson] has been a coaching mentor to me and I can’t tell you how many lessons he’s taught me on the baseball field and not only on the baseball field, but also how to be a better coach, be a better person, be a better husband. He and Sam and their whole family has been instrumental to us,” James said.
The feeling is mutual. “James was an assistant of mine my first time become a head coach and, shoot, I couldn’t have done any of what I had done without him… He’s more than just a family friend, he’s a really good baseball coach and he’s also a really good mentor of men,” Nelson said.
James’s oldest son, Tagertt, was a mainstay at Travis Field, the longtime home of the Bombers, playing catch with the college players and serving as a bat boy for the team. The youngster developed an especially close bond with Johnston when the pitcher was a member of the Bombers during the 2020 season.
Those players who invested in Tagertt certainly helped his physical development as a ballplayer. However, it was lessons on the mental side of the game that he still uses to this day, he said.
Some of those relationships have continued well beyond the Brazos Valley.
“I still keep in touch with Willie J here and there,” Tagertt Dillard said. “I see him doing well with the [Midland] Rock Hounds. Still check up on him and he’ll check up on me. So, it’s not just relationships that last a summer. They continue to keep working.”
Nelson got a front-row seat to Tagertt Dillard’s development as a young baseball player who would eventually develop a wicked changeup through his high school years at Palestine High, where James is now the head baseball coach. Recruiting Tagertt was an easy process for both sides.
“It was an easy decision,” Tagertt said. “To this day, I’m glad I made it.”
Nelson is in his first season as head coach at Oakland after serving as an assistant since 2021. Tagertt is a freshman with 1 2/3 innings of college experience under his belt. Both know better than most what they will be in for this weekend.
Back in 2015, Nelson coached at Blue Bell Park for the first time as the first-base coach for Texas Rio Grande Valley. The Aggie alumnus enjoyed soaking in all of the heckles from Section 203 and even played along by purposely standing outside the coaches’ box, bringing on chants of “Get in the box.” Every now and then, he would poke a toe into the painted bracket to the fans’ delight.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s special and unique,” Nelson said of his alma mater. “And I’m excited that our guys will get the opportunity to have that experience. It should be high-quality baseball that we’re expecting to see and I’m hoping our guys rise to the challenge.”
Tagertt, a relief pitcher for the Golden Grizzlies, knows the last thing he should do is throw four consecutive balls.
“I’m going to enjoy pregame and then BP,” Tagertt said. “I’m going to take it all in then take it from the bullpen to the mound. But, as soon as I get on the rubber, it’s just going to be me versus the batter.”
Both Texans will have plenty of friends and family from the Brazos Valley and surrounding areas in the ballpark to take in the full-circle moment. Though most will have plenty of A&M and Palestine maroon in their closet, word has been spread to leave those garments at home.
“We are black and gold,” Tagertt said with a grin. “I know y’all have a black shirt somewhere.”
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