In a matter of one year, Bryce Hulett will have completed the move from one end of the dugout to the top step of it.
For three years, Hulett was a mainstay in Mike Bell's lineup as a solid contact hitter and a far-above-average defender while playing for Pitt up through 2022.
In 2023, though, Hulett will take on a new challenge, a rare one for the trajectory on which most baseball players would take once their respective college baseball careers are wrapped up.
Starting this spring and beginning with a summer schedule of games, Hulett will open the next chapter of his baseball career when he begins as the head coach of the Bradenton Juice, a collegiate summer league based in Bradenton, Fla. which he played for while he was at Pitt.
A connection pulled through from the Juice's owner got Hulett into the door for what could be the start of a fruitful career in baseball away from playing the game.
"I played junior college with his son, and I just texted him that I'm looking to get into summer ball and a coaching job, and he was like, 'I'd love to have you,'" Hulett told me over the phone. "Scott (Eyre) just left, and it just kind of worked out."
The Bradenton Juice is proud to announce its head coach for summer 2023. Welcome former Juice alumni, Bryce Hulett @bryce_hulett!
— Bradenton Juice Baseball (@BradentonJuice) January 4, 2023
Bryce, a former @SCFBaseball all-conference juco player, @Pitt_BASE all-defensive ACC team, current graduate assistant for @WURoyalBaseball pic.twitter.com/Uxkxk3upj3
Eyre formerly pitched 13 major-league seasons and won a World Series in 2008 with Philadelphia, and he managed Hulett during his tenure in Bradenton. Now, the Juice will transition from a 50-year-old head coach to someone who is more that half of his age.
Hulett was a fair hitter in his three years at Pitt, batting .278 with 13 home runs, 71 RBI and an .820 OPS. But, his real strength was on defense, as he logged a .992 career fielding percentage and was a one-time ACC All-Defense selection at first base.
During the exit meetings at the end of the 2022 season, Hulett met with Bell to discuss the trajectory of his baseball career. He has a degree in criminology, but wanted to stick around the game. The idea of getting into scouting was among the topics discussed at first between the two, but Bell recalled a text he received from Hulett about coaching, and the conversation about making the transition turned into exploring those avenues.
"I like helping people and players and all that stuff, so it's just a good deal," Hulett said. "I wanted to play, but I just really love helping. I'm doing separate hitting lessons and stuff now. I just love helping other players get better. That's kind of how i modeled my game when I played. I was a first baseman, I was pretty good at defense. I'd always pick up my guys with picks or anything like that. It just works together."
Bell has Pitt's program on a rise within the ACC, and over his four years at the helm, he has guided five players into getting drafted and others into undrafted free agent deals. Pitt catcher Tatem Levins was drafted in the eighth round by the Mariners, and pitchers Baron Stuart and Billy Corcoran inked free agent deals with the Yankees and Diamondbacks, respectively, last summer.
But, putting a player right into the coaching ranks right out of his playing days is somewhat of a new frontier for Bell, who will also see 2022 Pitt pitcher Matt Gilbertson enter right into the coaching ranks as an assistant at the University of Saint Katherine in California.
Bell said Hulett is breaking into coaching in a prime spot.
"The one thing we always said about Bryce Hulett is he loved to play the game," Bell said. "This game can provide so much opportunities for young men, experiences for young men, but it's also something you grow up playing as a child. A lot of times college athletes are at a crossroads when they graduate. Some get an opportunity to go into pro ball. Some get the opportunity to make a difference in the game maybe through a high school program or a travel program that hey had experience with.
"I think some of the best mentors or individuals you look up to are probably your former coaches growing up, and I think his love and passion for the game, he wanted to continue that. He chose to get back involved back home and tie in there. Those college situations are great entry-level and starter-level positions for these young guys coming out of college."
A unique challenge lies right in front of Hulett. As a 22-year-old breaking into a college league as a head coach, a good number of his players will be his age, with most checking into this summer's Juice team a year or two younger than he.
By that point, though, Hulett will not be a total rookie when it comes to coaching. He is already working and will spend his spring as a graduate assistant at NAIA program Warner in his hometown of Lake Wales, Fla.
"I kind of worried about that a lot going into it," Hulett said. "It kind of just worked out because they just respected what I did when I played, they listened, and then things just started working with either fielding or their swing, and they go to me now. It's kind of nice that what I'm saying is working. I'm not just out there trying to be a coach and not 'coaching.' Sometimes coaches say things but they aren't really taken in by the players. If you're 'coaching' then everyone's looking up to you. Kind of like we did to Bell. When he speaks, people listen and don't just correct it immediately, and I feel like that's a good trait to have as a coach."
Undoubtedly, he will bring forth some of Bell's influence to his new group.
"Just listening to him talk and stuff, he's such a great baseball mind," Hulett said. "Really taught us how to slow the game down and help me mature, focusing on the little things. When I first got to campus, I probably wouldn't do what I did when I ended. It all really came together with him. I'm just looking up to him and all the other coaches at that level. Not everyone gets that opportunity."
Having Hulett and Gilbertson entering the coaching ranks right away is a direct testament to the program Bell has established at Pitt. The Panthers won 29 games in 2022, the most since joining the ACC in 2014, and advanced to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament with wins over seventh-seeded Georgia Tech and No. 2 seed Louisville. In August, Bell was signed to a contract extension that runs through 2027.
Hulett was a member of Bell's first recruiting class in 2018 and has seen every step of the program's growth under his tutelage.
"Obviously i knew they were rebuilding and stuff, but the big thing for me, like coach Ty (Megahee) told me on a visit, he was like, 'we're kind of handing people first-base gloves and seeing who can go out there. We don't really have anybody,'" Hulett said. "So that was a big pitch for me, personally, but I loved the city and everything about it right when I got up there. ... Over time I made a good decision because coach Bell helped me mature so much as a person through my three years there, and it was just a good opportunity for me. I took it and got lucky, and it all worked out."
Fast-forward four years ...
"I think coach Bell was definitely the biggest factor," Hulett said. "We had a practice where -- and he'd probably laugh if he hears this -- but we had a practice where someone missed a fly ball, and he's like, 'A Pitt Panther is not going to miss that ball.' He just changed the whole mentality and the way we practiced and everything like that, and that boosted us up to try to make each other better the whole time we were out there."
In a refreshing sense, Hulett said he doesn't currently have a big-picture goal in mind. His approach is to get started and see where it takes him, whether that ends him inside the college ranks, Minor League Baseball or Major League Baseball. One goal he did share, though, is that he would like to be back into the ACC or another Power Five college program as a head coach at some point.
Bell noted that this ground which Hulett is breaking into is a fine place for any coach to break in.
"On top of that, the summer ball opportunities that collegiate players have, it also allows the opportunity for young coaches to gain experience as a head coach," Bell said. "Writing a lineup, being in control of a team, making decisions. It's part of a coaching path that I think we'll find out in a short period of time through his experiences. Number one, he gets an opportunity to stay in the game and pass along what he's learned to others, but he's also going to find out in his heart and in his passion, is this something that he's going to want to continue to make a career out of."
Bell certainly has belief that, based on the type of teammate and character Hulett was within the Pitt dugout, he has the chance to succeed as a coach going forward.
"He's the guy that is such a dependable figure," Bell said. "And when you're in a clubhouse or team setting, everything's about accountability. It's not having one great player that can carry it. It's a team sport. What he was able to provide for us was consistency and accountability not only at his position, but the way he came about and did his work each and every day and the person he was each and every day. He was never too high, never too low. He just had a steady pulse about him that allowed for him to be a very likable teammate, a teammate that guys root for, a teammate that guys enjoy being around, a teammate that guys enjoyed growing with."