The Alameda Merchants became a collegiate summer baseball team in 2012 and competed in the Pacific West Baseball League (PWBL). General Manager Erik Schuler went out and acquired a group of coaches with over 50 years of playing and coaching experience. The Merchants moved to the Golden State Collegiate Baseball League (GSCBL) in 2013 and quickly established themselves as the elite team in the league – winning back to back titles in 2013 and 2014. Perfect Game ranked them as one of the TOP 50 collegiate summer teams in the country in only their 2nd year of existence. That coaching staff stayed together through the 2015 season. As of the end of the 2015 season, assistant coach Dan Mills was the only coach left behind from the original staff.

In late 2015, the Alameda Merchants left the GSCBL and merged with the San Francisco Seals –  a collegiate summer team that was created by Abel Alcantar in 1985. This merger quickly made the Merchants/Seals one of the stronger independent collegiate summer teams in the western United States.

As a coaching staff, our #1 goal is player development - coaching and teaching college age kids so they return to their program as better, more prepared players in the fall. In short, we try to raise the "Baseball IQ" of every one of our players. Secondly, we make every attempt to challenge our players and schedule games against the toughest competition in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Alaska so our players gain confidence by playing against the best of the best. We also make every effort to use any connections we have in order to expose our players to college coaches and professional scouts.

Here is a short bio of each of our coaching staff members going into 2016:

Abel Alcantar - The San Francisco Seals organization was founded in 1985 by Alcantar. Alcantar, a high school baseball coach at the time, was approached by a local scout who suggested that he form a summer team for the San Francisco Public School System. So Alcantar founded the San Francisco Seals 18 & Under team. In 1987, Alcantar continued the tradition and formed a team for those over the age of 18. Alcantar owned and funded these teams individually; he received some coaching support, but no financial assistance. All three clubs were maintained until the early 90s when he decided to concentrate his efforts on the 18 & Over collegiate team. The Seals have qualified for the National Baseball Congress (NBC) World Series (which is the summer equivalent to the College World Series) on more than one occasion (1999-2003, 2014). Alcantar has been an assistant coach or head coach at the following schools: San Francisco City College (1991-92, 1994-95, 1999-2000), Skyline Junior College (1993-94), Cal State Hayward (1995-98), Laney Junior College (2009-13).  

Pat Collins-Bride – Pat is an Alameda native who played baseball at Alameda and Encinal High School from 2004-2007. He was a member of the last Alameda Merchants Senior Babe Ruth team in the summer of 2007. He went on to play at Ave Maria University until 2012 and then became an assistant coach for the Gyrenes under Shawn Summe. He is now an assistant coach at NAIA powerhouse Indiana Tech under Kip McWilliams.

Dan Mills - Dan played at Saint Joseph Notre Dame high school in Alameda, CA. In 1991, he was an All League, All East Bay, All Northern California and All State utility player. As a pitcher, he was 7-0 with an ERA of 0.74. As a 2nd baseman, he hit .320 and had 22 RBI's for the East Shore Athletic League (ESAL) Champion Pilots. During his senior summer, he was one of the captains of his Alameda Post 9 American Legion team that went 50-5 and was ranked as one of the top teams in the country - with teammates Ryan Drese (Texas Rangers) and Joe Nelson (Atlanta/Tampa Bay/Boston) who ended up playing Major League Baseball. He received a baseball scholarship from the University of San Francisco and played his freshman season for the Dons. He then transferred to Seminole Junior College in Seminole, Oklahoma where he played left field for the #4 nationally ranked Trojans under legendary coach Lloyd Simmons. He then went on to play OF at the University of Hawaii and Sacramento State. Dan has coached the Merchants since their inception as a collegiate team in 2012.

Isias Alcantar - Isias Alcantar, Coach Abel’s son, is a recent graduate of the Univ. of Arkansas – Pine Bluff where he was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year as a junior in 2013. As a senior he helped UAPB win its first Western Division title and was also selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 36th round of the 2014 MLB draft and played in their minor league system. Recently he has taken on a job as a first year assistant coach at Canada CC in Redwood City.