FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas pitching coach Wes Johnson and volunteer coach Craig Parry have helped influence two teams at this week's NCAA regional at Baum Stadium.
Johnson and Parry were assistant coaches at Dallas Baptist and helped recruit or coach many of the Patriots' players who will be on the field for Friday's game against Southern Miss at 7 p.m.
Dallas Baptist (40-19) made the NCAA Tournament as the runner-up to Missouri State in the Missouri Valley Conference. This is the fifth consecutive season the Patriots have made the NCAA field, a run that began when Johnson and Parry were on staff - Johnson from 2012-15 and Parry from 2014-16.
"We had a lot of talent and guys developed," Parry said. "Obviously they've continued that success."
DBU is looking to advance to its first super regional since 2011 this weekend. The Patriots have come close multiple times in the past six years.
In 2012, DBU lost two straight games to Baylor after entering a Sunday game in the winner's bracket. Baylor went on to lose to Arkansas in the super regional the following week.
DBU hosted a regional for the first time in 2015 but failed to advance when it lost to Virginia Commonwealth at the end of a long weekend that was oft-delayed because of record rainfall in North Texas. At one point, a helicopter was flown onto the field at DBU to help clear the water from the playing area.
"There were a dozen fish in center field, flopping," Johnson said. "The fish flopping in center field is something I'll never get."
Johnson and Heefner met while Johnson was an assistant coach at Central Arkansas in Conway. They connected quickly because of their biomechanics-based approach to baseball - Johnson to pitching and Heefner to hitting.
During their time together the Patriots were 157-85.
"We have the exact same philosophies," Heefner said. "We developed a friendship when he was at UCA and when we had an opening we went after him. It was a perfect fit."
"We really feed off each other and I think that's why we were so successful," Johnson said. "We were constantly talking to each other about the hitting side and the pitching side."
Johnson left DBU in the fall of 2015 when a series of coaching changes in the SEC West opened the opportunity to become pitching coach at Mississippi State.
"That was a tremendous career opportunity for him and his family," Heefner said. "There's never good timing - that happened in the fall - but that was great for him and then it was pretty neat to see how he got to come home here."
Parry remained on staff in Dallas in 2016, a 44-19 campaign that ended when the Patriots took national seed Texas Tech to a winner-take-all game at the Lubbock Regional. Texas Tech won 5-3 and eventually went to the College World Series.
Parry met Heefner while DBU played in the Western Athletic Conference in 2011. Parry was an assistant at Sacramento State, also a WAC school.
"Being born in (Huntsville) Texas, I've always kind of wanted to get back down to this area," said Parry, who went to high school in Montana and played catcher at South Dakota State. "Coach Heefner happened to have an opening and the rest is history."
Arkansas hitting coach Nate Thompson also has ties to DBU and Heefner. He was a two-year outfielder for the Patriots and served as a student coach there in 2006 when Heefner was an assistant coach.
"I think it's a great compliment to their program," Thompson said when asked about the DBU influence on the Arkansas staff. "Coach Heefner has had a lot of success and his assistants have gone out a lot of places, too, so he's got a coaching tree."
Parry and Thompson both reached out to Heefner last summer when they were offered positions at Arkansas - Thompson after three seasons at Missouri State and Parry after one year as a full-time assistant at Southern Arkansas.
"He was a great mentor in a lot of ways, but I learned a lot as a coach and a person from him," Parry said. "I run a lot of stuff by him. He's a man of wisdom."
"He's always been a real mentor for me," Thompson said. "He was my hitting coach my senior year of college and I coached with him for one year there at DBU. He's just somebody that I've always stayed in touch with and always respected because of the character that he has and the way he runs his program. When this opportunity came up, I wanted to know what he thought. In his opinion, it was the right time and the right move, and a slam-dunk opportunity."
Devlin Granberg, a senior All-American outfielder at DBU, said several DBU players have been excited all week to see their former coaches in Fayetteville.
"We have a lot of guys who know them and have a good relationship with both of them," Granberg said. "It's just really fun to come see both of them here.
"I think Wes means a lot to a lot of guys, especially our older pitchers. It was exciting to see Coach Parry for a couple of our position guys, to reminisce a little bit and share what's been going on the past couple of years."
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated DBU had not been to a super regional. It has been corrected to state the Patriots have not been to a super regional since 2011.