CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — The University of Charleston won the Mountain East Conference Baseball Tournament over the weekend -- a three-peat for the Golden Eagles.

The title is the first under Dean Peterson, a coach with a fascinating background. He played professional ball, worked for the Secret Service and was a preacher.

Peterson said that experience makes him the coach he is today.

"A life of service in the Secret Service, to a life of service, to now a life of service to my players and all the people that I get to interact with," Peterson said.

The baseball IQ comes from playing the game. Peterson played in the Red Sox organization, and that time certainly changed him.

"Organized baseball was probably the most awesome time and also the most immature, squandered opportunity time of my life," Peterson said. "I share with these guys a lot and that was really, really hard as I look back to say, man, what a terrible like literally a terrible person I was during that time that I couldn't see that other people's success didn't take away from my own opportunity and success."

After pro ball, Peterson began a new career, one in the Secret Service as part of the uniform division riding a motorcycle as part of motorcade support.

"Part of running motorcades and the DC motorcade system, how we run it, is completely different than what agencies throughout the remainder of the country and world do it and so we use a system called the bump and run, where the person in front of you has to maintain the integrity of an intersection before the next motorcycle arrives at that intersection, or the next vehicle, whatever the case may be," Peterson said. "To be able to do that requires your head be on a swivel and doing lots of things at once, but you're also trusting that that person ahead of you is going to do their job and do it correctly, because if they vacate that intersection early, it leaves the next person or vehicle very vulnerable. So we would just practice over and over.

It's like doing trust falls on motorcycles at really high speeds through one of the most popular cities in America over and over again."

An accident in the line of duty had a positive impact on the UC coach.

"Part of the uniqueness of the story is Oct. 30, 2004," Peterson said. "I was in the Secret Service. One of my partners asks for some assistance, I take off to go help him and a DC Metro bus runs a red light and hits me. I end up shattering both my arms. I'm all banged up, spend some time in hospital. The doctors are like, I don't know if you're ever going to come back from this and be able to be on full duty and do what you do.

It shook my identity because I had tied my identity so much into my job -- that's why I talk about identity in this context. So it began this really, this spiritual awakening where I had to come to the reality that my identity's in Jesus Christ and not in what I do, but who I am."

Peterson's players said his story has had an impact on them.

"His experience in that has rubbed off on a lot of us," Charleston second basemanDrew Klaserner said. "But I think he's never lost sight of the present moment and being right here with us and saying that God has put him in this place specifically to influence us. I think he's been amazing."

Others echoed Klaserner's opinion.

"It's definitely fascinating," Charleston first baseman Casey Finck said. "There are definitely a few stories that he's opened up and told us as a team where we are just jaw dropped and just like, holy crap. But I think most of the time we're just sitting there listening and really just getting fascinated from these stories."