When Memphis utility player Seth Cox yelled “Coach” to get Matt Riser’s attention last year, Riser walked right by him.

It was early in Riser’s first year as the Tigers’ head baseball coach, and Cox was still getting used to Riser’s preference. Cox tried again, but this time, he used the right name: Skip.

“And then he turned around and recognized it,” Cox said.

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During Riser’s first team meeting after being hired ahead of last season, he informed the players that he’d only answer to “Skip” or “Coach Riser.”

“When you say ‘coach,’ you’ve got eight or nine heads turning around,” Riser said. “So now I know if they say ‘coach,’ they’re not talking to me. If they say ‘Skip,’ I know it’s me. If they say ‘Coach Riser,’ I know it’s me. Otherwise, if they say ‘coach,’ I can move on and work toward what I need to go to.”

The day before Memphis started its three-game home series against Southeastern Louisiana — SLU won Friday’s game 7-4 and the two teams will play again at 2:05 p.m. Saturday —Riser sat on a couch in the Tigers baseball facility and reflected on where his nickname originated. It dates back to his time at SLU before arriving at Memphis. Riser spent 10 years coaching the Lions after six years as an assistant.

Riser raised his arm to show the two most important accessories he’s worn on his wrist nearly every day for the last seven or eight years.

The two wristbands are light as a feather when held in your hand, but the stories attached to them are too heavy for words to describe. They represent two former Southeastern Louisiana players who both died from brain tumors.

The orange, blue and black band has the words “Team ColeCat” on one side and “#31 Strong” on the other. The green band says “#MamouStrong.”

“It’s always on my wrist,” Riser said. “You can see in any press conference I’ve ever done. You can probably say those two have been on my wrist since probably 2017 or 2018.”

The multicolored band represents Cole Catalano, who was on the Southeastern Louisiana team when Riser first became a volunteer heading into the 2008 season. He coached Catalano until 2010, and they maintained their friendship well after Catalano graduated. Catalano, who gave Riser the nickname “Skipper” after he was promoted to head coach at Southeastern Louisiana, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2017. He died last summer at the age of 37.

The green band honors Kaleb Manuel whose nickname was “Mamou” after his hometown of Mamou, Louisiana. Mamou played at Southeastern Louisiana in 2012 and 2013 before becoming a volunteer coach for the Lions from 2016 to 2018.

Mamou left to coach high school for a year before Riser hired him as the pitching coach during the summer of 2019. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor about four months after accepting the job. The gig was Mamou’s dream job, and it was his for as long as he still wanted it. But Mamou stepped down following the 2020 season.

“He came over to the house and was like, ‘I’m going to resign,’” Riser recalled. “He said, ‘The guys can’t get what they want and what they need. I can’t give it to them.’ He said, ‘I need to focus on my treatment. As much as this has been my dream job forever, it’s selfish for me to keep this job and not let them have the coaching that they need.’”

Mamou was diagnosed in September 2019 with Riser’s dad as his original physician. Mamou, at 30 years old, died two years later on Sept. 15, 2021.

“That one was tough,” Riser said. “That’s where my faith, talk about being strong, I asked a lot of questions, a lot of soul searching.”

Go get ’em Skip

Riser was only 22 years old when he first became an assistant coach at Southeastern Louisiana, so he wasn’t that much older than most of the athletes on the team. In fact, the Lions had a few players older than Riser at the time.

Catalano wasn’t the best pitcher on the team, but Riser said he was a team-camaraderie player. When the dugout needed to loosen up or refocus, Catalano was the guy who made it happen.

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“That was Cole’s personality, man,” Riser said. “He never met a stranger. (He) always kept it light, always kept it personal to where he built personal relationships around him and made people feel better around him.”

After Catalano graduated and started his high school coaching career, he and Riser would share a beer over a steak dinner at Brady’s Restaurant every Thursday. They were having a celebratory dinner after Riser’s promotion to head coach ahead of the 2014 season when Catalano gave him the nickname that helped shape who Riser became as a head coach.

“He picked up the tab that night and said, ‘Congratulations, Skip,’” Riser said. “I was like, ‘Well, that’s pretty cool. What do you mean (by) Skip?’ He was like, ‘You’re the skipper, man. Now you’re the guy. You’re not the assistant coach anymore. You’re the skipper, so go get ’em, Skip.’”

Riser didn’t expect the name to stick after that night, but Catalano kept it going.

“Every time you’d see Cole go around he’d be like, ‘Hey, man you see Skip?’” Riser said. “They’d be like, ‘Who are you talking about?’ He’d be like, ‘Riser. You see Riser? He’s the skipper. His name is Skip.’ It stuck. I enjoyed it. I thought it shined a light on some things.

“And obviously, when he got diagnosed, (it was) almost as an honor to him. ‘Hey man, you’re the guy who came up with the nickname, so let’s keep it and let’s rock ’n‘ roll and do our thing.’”

Changing course

Riser, a former Tulane baseball player, earned a biomedical-science degree and was headed toward medical school until coaching high school baseball for a summer lit a fire under him that he couldn’t put out. 

“Living the dream, right?” Riser said. “(I was) fishing in the nighttime on the river and coaching baseball during the daytime for that summer. I was working on getting into grad school, working on my MCAT stuff.”

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Riser had a decision to make by the time August rolled around. He could accept an $80,000 job as a biomedical engineer or make $12,000 as a Southeastern Louisiana volunteer baseball coach.

Riser chose baseball with his father’s full support. 

“He said, ‘Hey man, go do what you love,’” Riser said. “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. I’m not saying it didn’t have its hardships and hard times and pressure and all that kind of good stuff. But if you do what you love, you’ll wake up every morning ready to go back to work.

“I was fortunate enough. I knew I had the security blanket to be able to fall back on that degree if I didn’t really like it. I was still young enough to be able to do it.”

Riser said he appreciated all his coaches from little league through college. He has a long list of coaches who treated him like a son.

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“If I didn’t have those guys, I wouldn’t be the man I am, to be honest with you,” Riser said.

Riser said he wanted to make a similar impact as a coach.

“I could have gone and been a doctor,” Riser said. “I got my degree in biomedical engineering and was off to do the whole med school deal. But at the end of the day, man, I couldn’t build the same relationships and network with the same amount of people that I could influence and impact.”

Cox joined Memphis from Northeast Texas Community College before Riser’s first season at Memphis last year. His comments suggest Riser became the coach he aspired to be when he took a chance nearly two decades ago.

“He cares about us more than anything,” Cox said. “And he wants us to be the best player we can possibly be but also the best man on and off the field. He’s continued to grow us as young men but also good ball players. I think that’s something that’s really big.”

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Riser said the relationship is a two-way street, and his players have impacted him just as much, including the late Catalano and Manuel. He wears a piece of their legacy on his wrist in every game he coaches. And every time Riser answers to his nickname, he’s honoring his relationship with Catalano.

“‘Skip’ has been a part of my life for a long time and will stay a part of my life for the rest of it,” Riser said.