5 Days 'til: Loyalty the reason for Hutchins family's rise to Aggie royalty

It’s that time of year! The Texas Aggie baseball team is set to open up the 2025 season on Friday against Elon at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. We’re counting down the days with our 2025 Aggie Baseball Preview Series.

Jason Hutchins’ ascent to “royalty” started with a letter.

A former Texas A&M pitcher in the early 1990s, “Hutch” was at a crossroads.

His brief foray into professional baseball was coming to an end. A native of Irvine, Calif., he was a young man without an idea of what to do next.

And that’s when his wife, Alicia, a former Diamond Darling, put pen to paper.

That letter, mailed to Olsen Field, was answered by Jason’s former coach: A&M Hall of Famer Mark Johnson.

“I kind of wrote a letter about how he was losing kind of his identity playing baseball, and he was lost and didn’t really know what he was gonna do with life,” she recalled. “Hutch didn’t earn a lot of respect from coach Johnson. He was a little cocky and kind of did his own thing.

“By the grace and mercy of coach Johnson and the beautiful heart he has, he called Jason and was like, ‘Hey, I would like you to come back here, work with the team, be around everything and help the program.’”

The year was 1996. The couple packed up, left the Golden State and returned to Aggieland.

After a stint as an undergraduate assistant, Hutchins graduated from A&M in 1998 and was subsequently hired as Johnson’s director of operations – a title he has held for 27 years and counting.

“Texas A&M has given me so much, as far as a scholarship opportunity, a salary. I love this place, and I’d do anything for it,” Jason said. “That’s all I’m doing. It's not royalty. It just means I've been here for a long time, and I appreciate it. I’d do it for another 30 years if I can.”

As far as tenures within the athletic department go, only a select few pre-date him – namely, sports information directors Alan Cannon and Brad Marquardt.

Additionally, his role isn’t always a glamorous one. His day-to-day varies throughout the year but includes running A&M baseball’s summer camps, organizing team travel, managing the budget and serving as a liaison between the coaching staff and the athletic department.

As the climate of college athletics has changed, Hutch has taken on the responsibilities of running the Dugout Club, working through NIL and much more.

“There’s just so many different things, but I love it,” he said. “All the different things fit my personality because I’m pretty hyperactive, and I like working, and I like different things and trying to figure out how to manage and work within the rules.”

Often a thankless job, his loyalty to A&M shined brightest over the summer.

Remember what happened at the end of June?

After Jim Schlossnagle’s sudden departure (hours after the Aggies dropped a winner-take-all game for the national title), Jason was left behind as A&M found itself in a tumultuous, unplanned coaching search. Before Michael Earley’s introduction on July 2, Hutchins was something of a one-man show.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Texas A&M baseball has been to five Men’s College World Series during Jason Hutchins’ tenure.

Despite lacking coaching manpower, A&M’s camp went on as planned. That was Hutch.

Despite not having a program leader, A&M’s players and their parents had question after question. Hutch provided answers as best he could.

Despite not being involved in the hiring process (or guaranteed a job once it was completed), Hutch fielded the calls.

“You don’t even have time to either celebrate or mourn that we didn’t win, and it came down the way it did. It was really, really tough,” he said. “It ended up going okay, but I’ll tell you, I’ve never taken more phone calls or texts over a three-day period.”

Unlike the Windsors, the Hutchins family bloodlines are plain.

Yet, Earley showed him the royal treatment during his July introduction.

“The Hutchins family is baseball royalty to me,” the Aggie skipper said. “(Jason is) the first person I ever met when I came here. He showed me around.

“He always laughs… ‘You just wanted to see the little league fields, the parks and the houses for your kids. No one has ever said that, but I was the same way.’ We’ve gotten along, and I can’t thank him enough.”

Those comments served as a very public thank you to Jason and his entire family.

Retaining him was an even bigger one.

No stranger to coaching changes, Earley is now the fourth “boss” the Hutchins family has known.

In 2005, Johnson was relieved of his duties, and Rob Childress was hired as the 19th head coach in program history.

Even then, there was no guarantee the director of operations would stick around.

“I had no idea that I would have a job. I thought I was done,” Jason said. “Coach Johnson is such a terrific man, but he said, ‘Hey, look, you owe it to Texas A&M to keep this thing running until the next head coach gets here, and if he decides to let you go, you leave this place in great standing condition with the alumni, with the camps, with the players coming in, everything.’

“My whole job the whole time is I just want to leave this place in a better spot. That’s my only goal when these things go down. … Because I have so much invested in it, I want to see it succeed.”

That investment has paid immeasurable dividends.

From Johnson to Childress to Schlossnagle to Earley, the Hutchins family has become a constant.

Even at the family’s genesis. Jason and Alicia met through Aggie baseball.

In the 1990s, there were no rules forbidding baseball players from dating Diamond Darlings, a women’s organization that supports the program and traces its roots to Hall of Fame A&M coach Tom Chandler’s wife, Willowdean.

As the story goes, the new Diamond Darling received a warning from friend and then-graduate assistant Steve Johnigan.

“He said, ‘Hey, everyone, all the players are great. Everyone’s really good, but there’s one you have to stay away from,’” Alicia said.

Of course, that was Jason.

And of course, that’s the man she married.

They’ve raised their children, Jace and Halle, in College Station and around the program.

It was during the Childress era that A&M baseball started turning into the family business the Hutchins now know.

CJ Smith, TexAgs

Jace Hutchins did not appear in a game for the Aggie as a player, but his knowledge led his hiring as A&M’s director of program and pitching development.

“Coach Childress was very big on family and wanted the kids to be around as much as possible,” Alicia said.

A young Jace was an Aggie bat boy and a ring bearer in Cliff Pennington’s wedding.

His earliest memories include trips to Oklahoma City for Big 12 Tournaments. Walk-off homers by Brodie Greene and Andrew Collazo are ingrained in his mind.

“I grew up here,” Jace said. “Any teacher that I had could tell you that I was pulled out of school constantly, always coming to the games super early, and was just trying to be a part as much as I could.”

Time at Olsen wasn’t exclusive to the boys.

In the Hutchins’ game room – A&M baseball-themed, obviously – a sign repeats a joke about baseball’s place in the family’s life:

We interrupt this marriage for the start of baseball season.

“That is a very common quote among wives,” Alicia explained. “As you move forward in this career, you know, making sure that the person that you’re with understands the commitment.

“Fortunately, my kids are older, so it’s a lot easier for me. But, these ones with little kids, it’s not for the faint of heart.”

Though, sometimes, even the director of operations puts his kids to work.

Halle recalls her and her brother assisting their father with camps each summer.

“I’ve always sold the pizza,” Halle said. “Literally since I was 8 years old, I was working camps, selling pizza to campers.”

She has graduated from her role as pizza girl, and when she graduates in May, she’ll complete a family quartet of Texas A&M University degrees.

Since 2022, Halle has been a student worker for her dad, helping A&M baseball with social media, brand development and recruiting.

Like his father, Jace was a pitcher at A&M, but elbow and shoulder injuries cut his playing career short. That led him to coaching.

Last summer, Earley hired him to be the Aggies’ director of program and pitching development.

Jace’s office is just feet from Jason’s.

“It sounds corny, but I am blessed,” the proud dad said. “I love having my family here. Not many people get to do a job that they absolutely love and be around people they love, but to have their family all in? There’s nothing better than that.”

The family is indeed all in.

A 35-minute highlight video – 1989’s “A Sweet Season” – convinced a right-hander from Irvine to commit to Aggieland, sight unseen.

Thirty-five years later, there is no doubting the Hutchins family’s loyalty or legacy.

While Jason is unsure whether he’s “royalty” or not, his wife is certain.

“He held this program together through coaching changes. He’s never wavered. He has always been there to answer the phone calls,” Alicia said. “Was it a sweet thing to be called royalty? Absolutely. It meant the world to me from the standpoint that our family was recognized for all that it has given to this program.”