SAUGET – The Gateway Grizzlies announce that manager Steve Brook, pitching coach Nick Kennedy, hitting coach Kyle Gaedele, bench coach Alex Ferguson, athletic trainer Margaret Rall, and clubhouse manager Matt Mooney will all return to their roles in 2025, keeping in place a staff that has helped the team to tremendous success over the last two seasons.
The third-winningest manager in Frontier League history, Steve Brook will once again skipper the Grizzlies in 2025, his fourth season in Sauget. He has steered the club to back-to-back playoff appearances over the last two seasons, with Gateway winning 59 games in 2023 and 2024 as well as the West Division title in 2023, when he was also named Frontier League Manager of the Year. He enters 2025, his 14th season as a Frontier League manager, with 707 career victories, having led his teams to the postseason nine times with a pair of Frontier League championships in 2010 and 2019.
Nick Kennedy will also be back in the dugout as the Grizzlies’ pitching coach in 2025, his fourth season with the club under Brook. A former all-star relief pitcher as a player who until this past season held the Frontier League record for career appearances, he guided the Grizzlies’ pitching staff to another outstanding year on the mound in 2024, with the team ranking fourth in the league in ERA (3.79), second in strikeouts (878), and first in fewest hits allowed (691, the only team under 700 in the circuit).
2025 will by Kyle Gaedele’s third season with the Grizzlies as the hitting coach. This past season, Gateway ranked sixth out of 16 teams in the Frontier League with a .263 batting average while also placing inside the league’s top-10 in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, hits, home runs, runs scored, walks, and stolen bases, with the veteran also serving as a player/coach. He did so down the stretch in 2023 as well, a season where the Grizzlies’ offense was one of the best in Frontier League history.
Bench coach Alex Ferguson will also return in 2025, assisting the club with various duties throughout the summer and bringing even more experience to the coaching staff. He is also entering his fourth season as the head coach at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois this spring after serving as an assistant there under former longtime Grizzlies pitching coach Randy Martz. Previously, Ferguson worked with Steve Brook as a coach with the River City Rascals for five seasons as well.
Margaret Rall enters her second season with the Grizzlies in 2025 as the team’s head athletic trainer, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience back to Sauget. She is also currently the head athletic trainer at St. Louis Community College, and spent two years as the trainer for the Joliet Slammers as well as six years in Minor League Baseball with the White Sox, Red Sox, and Mets organizations.
Finally, the Grizzlies will welcome back clubhouse manager Matt Mooney for his fourth season with the team and his 18th season in the Frontier League overall in 2025. A four-time winner of the Sam Hartsfield Award as the league’s Clubhouse Manager of the Year, more than any other “clubbie” in league history, he will continue to serve both the Grizzlies and their opponents’ needs before and after games while also coordinating the team’s travel schedule, and much, much more. He was previously the clubhouse manager with the Southern Illinois Miners (2013-21) and River City Rascals (2007-12).
