Santa Fe College has basically had two baseball coaches in the program’s history, which began in 1981.
Johnny Wiggs announced his retirement in June after 20 years as Santa Fe’s head baseball coach and was honored by former players, coaches, peers, and family in a ceremony on Wednesday afternoon at the Santa Fe Gymnasium.
Wiggs won 627 games at Santa Fe, including two trips in 2009 and 2016 to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Saints finished second nationally in 2009. He won his 500th game at SF on March 21, 2022, and his 600th on March 29, 2025.
Wiggs, surrounded by his wife, children and grandchildren, said it just felt like it was time to call it a career.
“It just felt right,” Wiggs said. “Nobody is more competitive than I am when I’m on the field, but I feel like I’ve lost a little bit of the desire to drive two hours away on a Tuesday night to watch a high school pitcher pitch. With my family and my wife so supportive, it felt more important to be home rather than recruiting and those types of things. I always said I would do this until I felt like I couldn’t give 100 percent anymore and I felt like I was there.”
Wiggs replaced long-time Saints baseball coach Harry Tholen in 2006. Tholen, for whom the Santa Fe baseball field is now named, won 526 games as Santa Fe’s head coach from 1982 to 1985 and 1989 to 2006. Tholen, who returned as an assistant coach for Wiggs in 2009, was also on hand.
Wiggs, who also coached Polk Community College in Winter Haven for eight seasons before taking the Santa Fe job, was an assistant coach for Jacksonville University and the University of Florida. A left-handed pitcher, Wiggs played at Valencia Community College in Orlando and a season at SF before moving on to UF, where he helped the Gators to their first trip to the College World Series in 1988. He was an All-SEC selection his junior season and then spent five years in the minor leagues with the Seattle Mariners, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox organizations.
“I was at Polk for eight years, but my goal was always to get back to Gainesville where it started,” Wiggs said. “Playing at Florida and going to the College World Series and then being an assistant coach and then head coach here at Santa Fe, it just worked out to perfection. I met my wife at UF and I couldn’t have drawn it up any better.”
Wiggs was named to the NJCAA Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2025 and finishes with 826 career wins. He has had 185 players sign with four-year colleges, and seven players signed directly into professional baseball, including three in the top five rounds. Pitchers Ryan Yarbrough with the New York Yankees and Brad Lord with the Washington Nationals are two former Saints currently in Major League Baseball.
“We’ve had five different guys play in the major leagues and two still playing,” Wiggs said. “It’s been fun to turn on the TV and watch those guys, but I get just as much satisfaction pulling up the box scores for the players who move on to four-year colleges.”
