Talk about a home-run hire: Colleyville Covenant Christian announced Tuesday that is has hired three-time American League All-Star outfielder Vernon Wells as its new head football coach.

Wells has been a mainstay at CCA for more than a decade, coaching the baseball team and spending the last six seasons as the Cougars' associate head football coach under coach Phil Towe, whose move to athletic director opened up the head coaching vacancy. During that six-year span on the football staff, the Cougars won a pair of TAPPS Division III state championships and made two other semifinal appearances.

"It is an honor to have the opportunity to continue the success Coach Towe and his staff have achieved on the field," Wells said. "Obviously, my goal is to win another State Championship, but my purpose is to mentor and guide our student-athletes, and hold them to a standard of excellence that honors our Lord."

Wells played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball, a dozen of which came with the Toronto Blue Jays, where he ranks second in franchise history with 1,529 hits. He broke out in 2003 when he slugged 33 home runs, set a franchise record with 215 hits and notched a .909 OPS, earning the first of his three All-Star nods, a Silver Slugger award and an 8th-place finish in the American League MVP voting. A three-time Gold Glove recipient, Wells also briefly served as an analyst on ESPN's Baseball Tonight.

A product of Arlington Bowie, Wells is no stranger to the gridiron — a standout wide receiver, he signed to play both football and baseball for the Texas Longhorns before turning pro after being taken 5th overall in the 1997 MLB Draft.

Wells takes the reins of a Colleyville Covenant program that finished 3-8 in 2022 but hopes to recapture the magic that led it to three state championships, most recently in 2020.