Coaching Staff
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.—The Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (AAU) has named the coaching staff for the AAU USA International Collegiate Baseball Team in international friendly series against Spain and Scotland teams, including the Scotland National Team, July 6-July 15, 2019.
AAU Baseball International Ambassador Coaches Mike Graham (photo, right) and Chris Cummings (left), veteran coaches of international collegiate summer baseball in Europe and an elite AAU travel-select team in Maryland, will lead the team of American college and athletes of other countries, a bold initiative in the global expansion of AAU Baseball.
The AAU USA International Collegiate Baseball Team is a premier international collegiate summer team of players from throughout the USA and across the world representing AAU in international competition.
“As we prepare AAU Baseball for the 2019 year ahead, we are pleased to have coaches with such experience leading this bold global initiative,” said Ed Skovron, AAU Baseball Chair, “and we look forward to having them represent AAU in world competition. They exemplify all the characteristics we want in AAU coaches, and have represented our great sport with class, character and remarkable success everywhere they have coached.”
Graham and Cummings were selected in 2016 to succeed former Major League Baseball (MLB) International Envoy Coach Don George as manager and head coach for the Sant Boi Barcelona Falcons representing Spain in the Collegiate Baseball League Europe (CBLE).
They were named the CBLE All-Star Team coaches both in 2017 and 2016 after leading the Falcons to back to back regular season championships, and directed the CBLE All-Stars to a 9-4 friendly win over the French National Team in La Rochelle, France, in 2017.
They have led collegiate summer teams playing in league and tournament action in Great Britain, France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland, and Ireland, including the Olympics/National Teams of Ireland, Scotland and France.
“It’s a tremendous honor and we’re excited about the opportunity to be a part of the global expansion of the AAU Baseball experience,” Graham said. “Obviously, we are grateful to Ed Skovron’s vision for giving us the chance. It will be a pleasure and an honor for Coach Cummings and me to lead the AAU USA International Collegiate Baseball Team again this summer.”
Cummings agreed. “Coach Graham and I are longtime friends and colleagues and share similar baseball philosophies,” he said. “He knows our players very well, what they can do and not do, and his knowledge of baseball as a sport and its history is extraordinary. Mike’s secret is he has tremendous confidence in the players and staff.”
Graham and Cummings each bring over 20 years of coaching experience, including the past 10 years together leading the Maryland RBI (Annapolis, Md.) advanced skills development team.
In that time, Maryland RBI made over 30 tournament appearances, including four Maryland AAU state championships, two Mid-Atlantic regional championships, 10 wood bat tournament championships, and seven second-place and five final four finishes. They received a Maryland record-setting number of five consecutive AAU National Championships invitation-only or automatic bids.
Fourteen of their former Maryland RBI players are active on college level rosters or under their leadership signed or committed. Many of their players have been selected to participate in national, international and collegiate competitions, and several have received MLB evaluation or tryout invitations. One has gone pro.
Cummings and Graham together with other coaching colleagues have achieved a sustained level of uncommon success with the Maryland RBI program with a record of 257-140 (.648) since 2010. Graham (530-331, .616) and Cummings (384-226 .630) career coaching records on the diamonds at all levels combined is 897-548 (.621).
In 2018, Cummings was named Maryland AAU Baseball Coach of the Year for the third time, while Graham became a two-time recipient of the Maryland AAU Governor’s Award for amateur sports leadership. Both hold the MLB Coaches Certification and are members of the Maryland AAU Baseball Hall of Fame, and Graham holds pro scouting and operations credentials.
A native of Staten Island, NY, Cummings played college basketball and baseball as a pitcher/outfielder for Eisenhower College/Rochester Institute of Technology, while earning his bachelor’s in criminal justice. He earned a master’s in management at The Johns Hopkins University. He is married to Denise Cummings and the couple have two sons, Jake and CJ, and a daughter, Carly. Jake and Carly played college lacrosse at Piedmont College/East Carolina University and Manhattan College respectively, while CJ plays intercollegiate club baseball at the University of Mary Washington.
Graham, a native of Madison, WV, holds a PhD in organizational management, master’s in international politics, master’s in history, and bachelor’s in journalism. He played amateur youth baseball and is married to the former Tina Moore of New Oxford, Pa., and the couple has two children. A daughter, Kelsey, was a two-time All-America scholar-athlete in women’s college softball at Washington College (Md.). Their son, Connor, plays college baseball at Central Penn College (Pa.).