MUSKEGON – What started out a little joke five years ago between former Muskegon Clippers manager Walt Gawkowski and then shortstop Logan Fleener is now reality.

The Clippers announced on Wednesday that they’ve hired Fleener to be the next manager of the team, replacing Gawkowski, who was the squad’s skipper since the team’s inception and retired after last season.

“I am very excited,” said Fleener, who is from Murfreesboro Tennessee, and played for the Clippers back in the summer of 2016. “Walt talked about me taking his job back when I was a player, and I knew that I wanted this job. I just needed to make sure my schedule worked out.

“We had a couple of calls and thankfully they wanted me to be that guy.”

Fleener is currently an assistant coach at Tennessee Wesleyan College and is planning to remain with that team during the college baseball season.

He has also spent time coaching at Roosevelt University in Chicago, the school where he played collegiately, and Trevecca Nazarene University.

Fleener, who played high school baseball at Blackman High School in Tennessee, also has experience coaching a collegiate summer league team like the Clippers. That was back in 2018, when he was on the coaching staff of the Rochester Honkers, a team that plays in the Northwoods baseball league.

Another reason Fleener was thrilled with his new job is because of family connections in Muskegon. His father, Mark Fleener, attended Mona Shores High School and played baseball at Marsh Field, and his uncle, Greg Fleener, coaches the boys varsity soccer team at Oakridge High School.

“Muskegon is a beautiful place to spend a summer, and I was able to connect with my dad’s baseball career,” Fleener said. “Marsh Field is the only place where we both hit a home run.”

Fleener will also be joined with his current roommate Dion Felger, who will become the Clippers’ new pitching coach.

Felger was a private pitching instructor in Youngstown, Ohio. He played collegiately for Roane State Community College, Youngstown State University and Ohio Valley University from 2014-2018.

The Clippers have also announced that longtime assistant coach Brian Wright will be returning to the dugout for his eighth season.

The Clippers will look to bounce back from a 20-21-1 season in 2021, when they missed the league playoffs after qualifying the year before.

“I have memories from the summer I played in Muskegon, and winning was a piece of the memory.” Fleener said. “If we have the best interest of the players as a staff, we will bring that first playoff win, first series win and win our first championship.”