Cody Vaught was hoping to find another basketball player when talking to Don Thomas about his son, Tyler, at a parent meeting a while back.
It turns out the Ozark Catholic athletic director and boys' basketball coach found a baseball coach, too.
"We were just talking and I was thinking 'Man, this guy knows a lot about baseball,'" Vaught said. "We talked some more and I got the feeling he'd coached. So I started asking more questions. I was 5 years old when he graduated."
A little while later he found a person to start a baseball program at the school only in its third year of existence.
Thomas was a four-year letterman for the University of Arkansas in baseball in the mid-1980s and a part of two teams that went to the College World Series. He also played in the minor leagues in the Atlanta Braves organization and later spent 18 years as a pro scout for the Braves.
The 53-year-old has high school head coaching experience in Louisiana including a year at Evangel Christian in Shreveport. He also served as an assistant coach in college under current Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn at Northwestern State, along with stops at Southern University and Texarkana College.
Vaught couldn't think of a better person to start the baseball program at the school.
"In baseball terms, it's a home run hire for us," Vaught said. "He's a class act and such a genuine person and he's going to start our baseball program from scratch.
"When you're a smaller school, you try not to expand too fast. But when a Don Thomas falls in your lap, I'm pumped."
Thomas, whose son attended St. Joseph Catholic School in Fayetteville, moved back to Northwest Arkansas almost two years ago. He's looking forward to the challenge.
"Coaching has always been a passion of mine," Thomas said. "When that job opportunity opened up, I saw it as a chance to build a foundation. I love the challenge of it. Baseball is really big in this area.
"There's no reason we can't build a very successful baseball program here."
The school, which has grown from 24 students in the high school to around 75, also added Peggy Estes as its new volleyball coach. Estes, who played volleyball at Henderson State, has been the coach at St. Vincent de Paul junior high in Rogers for the past four years. She will guide a program that's only in its second year of existence.
In addition, Adriana Stacey and Jamie McAfee were hired as co-cheer coaches. This will also be a new program at the school, Vaught said.
The teams will compete in the 1A-1 West Conference for the first time during the 2020-21 school year.