First-year Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello brings his Volunteers to Missouri on Thursday to begin a three-game series against his alma mater. Vitello, a St. Louis native from De Smet High, played at MU from 2000-02 then spent eight years on the Mizzou coachingu200b staff. (Photo courtesy Tennessee Athletics)
Tony Vitello dreamed of becoming a head coach in major college baseball, and two years ago it appeared he might get that chance at his alma mater.
Vitello, then an assistant at Arkansas, interviewed for the head-coaching position at Missouri, where he had played and later spent eight years on the coaching staff and developed a reputation as one of the game’s best recruiters.