ST. PETER — Andrew Woitas said that when he played baseball for Gustavus Adolphus College from 2006-10, he never envisioned himself being the head baseball coach for the Gusties.

But last week Woitas became the Gusties head coach when he was named to replace Brad Baker at the controls.

“This is definitely a full-circle moment from that standpoint,” said Woitas, who becomes the 25th head baseball coach for the Golden Gusties. “And it is kind of funny on how the connections work. My dad [Bruce] had a good relationship with Paul Twenge at Minnetonka High School got me coaching in Minnetonka (seven seasons) and I learned a lot from being a part of that — Paul ran his program like a college program there. [Paul] got me connected with the Minnesota Blizzard and that led me getting connected with Brad at Gustavus and coming back eight seasons (last two as associate head coach).”

While he didn’t expect to be in this spot now after leaving Gustavus, Woitas has enjoyed his time coaching at the school so far and looks forward to the challenges ahead.

“When I left Gustavus, I never thought that I could coach baseball for a living, but it is pretty fun to do it,” he said. “I had been handling a lot of the day-to-day operations for the last few years, but there will be some adjustments and some jumps. But the biggest thing is that we have to go and get good players — you are a better coach with good players.”

And Woitas also has some very good baseball DNA.

His father, Bruce, is the long-time head baseball coach at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s and his twin brother, Alan, is the head baseball coach at New Ulm Cathedral that just finished second in the Minnesota Class A State Baseball Tournament.

“That is all pretty cool and I think a lot of it starts with our dad getting that passion in us,” Woitas said. “And the success that he has had speaks for itself (478 career wins, 9th in Minnesota High School baseball coaches) — he is up for National Baseball Coach of the Year. And Alan obviously going to the dark side to coach New Ulm Cathedral (friendly rivals of Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s where both Woitas brothers played). He has had success there. We all have that love of the game that was instilled in us from our dad and then our mom being so supportive and chasing us around to all of the games we had to go to. That just cultivates that.”

Woitas said that when he and his brother get together with their father, there is a lot of good-natured second guessing that goes on.

“You always learn from each other like everything in life you try and get better each day,” he said.

And Woitas stresses that to his players.

“You can come and get a real good education and then do some cool things on the baseball field,” he said. “We want to be at the top of the MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Baseball Conference) — get the chance to play in the postseason. Our ultimate goal is to play in the college world series. We have a long ways to go, but if we get some cool kids that we can be around some day, that can happen.”

The right baseball DNA is there to make sure that the success continues and grows.