The Purpose of the Coaches Breakfast panel

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St. Thomas joined the NCAA Division One in the spring of  2022 placing in the D1 Summit League.  A three-time NCAA D-III Region Coach of the Year, Chris Olean will be starting his 16th season as Tommie Baseball's head coach in spring of 2025.

In 2024, Tommie Baseball won the university’s first Summit League team championship in just its third season of DI competition. Coach Chris Olean’s 2024 squad finished with a 22-24 overall record, going 16-10 in Summit League play. The Purple had eight come-from-behind wins en route to a Summit championship. Those included 10-9 home win over Oral Roberts on May 17 after falling behind 7-0 in the first inning — the largest deficit St. Thomas Baseball has overcome for a victory in the three-year D-I era. The Tommies earned eight All-Summit League honors, including two First Team accolades (Brigs Richartz and Max Moris), while two-student athletes earned Summit League weekly awards, four were named to the CSC Academic All-District Team, and a pair of Tommies were named to the Summit League All-Academic Team. 

Resources: Tommies Roster     Tommies Coaches   St. Thomas Quick Facts   About St. Thomas  

Coach Matthew Erzar - Century College (White Bear Lake)  matthew.erzar@century.edu    Erzar is at the helm at one of the top community college programs in the country.  He sees his job as helping each player transition to his next level.  Matt started early on as a youth coach later joining  Mesabi Range College for three years and on to DCTC Dakota County Technical College  for five years. In his first two seasons at CC, the Wood Ducks were 64-32, two regional appearances, 21 All-Division, 7 All-Region, 28 All-MCAC Academic,10 All-Academic NJCAA, an All-American, and Region Player of Year.  Pretty darn good!

Matts dad Jim Erzar was a high school baseball coach for over thirty eight years and is in the High School Coaches Hall of Fame. A Grand Rapids MN kid, you know Matt loves the outdoors: to hunt and fish and even golf. Not to mention Matt's award winning beard. 

Coach Erzar on JUCO -   I Love JUCO, it’s a different, crazy, diverse animal. I’m at Century because of the great opportunity to win, teach, and move guys on.

• Player Goals at Century College:
• Work Hard – Play Hard
• Love the Process
• Get Bigger Faster Stronger
• Take Care of classes
• Be a great person

Woodducks News    Meet the Woodducks    Why a JuCo?

Since arriving at Augsburg in 2003, Keith Bateman (Bethel ‘98) has been the architect of a revival of fortunes for the Augsburg baseball program, leading the team to multiple conference tournaments and championship games. 

Augsburg Coaching Highlights:
In his first season, Bateman took a team that had gone 18-53-2 in the previous two seasons and finished 16-22. Then in 2005, the Auggies finished 24-18 in qualifying for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason playoffs for the first time in school history, where they finished second. Bateman was named MIAC Co-Coach of the Year in 2005 and would lead the Auggies back to the conference playoffs in 2010 and 2013.

At Augsburg, Bateman has coached 29 All-MIAC, nine All-MIAC Defensive Team, 17 All-Region student-athletes, including one MIAC Rookie of the Year, one Regional Rookie of the Year and one NCAA DIII/Rawlings Gold Glove recipient. Bateman has had 12 players play in summer collegiate baseball leagues with 10 of those playing in the prestigious Northwoods League. He has also had two of his former players go on to sign professional contracts.

Bateman’s players have also had success in the classroom with 51 Academic All-MIAC and nine Academic All-District award winners, one Academic All-American, and one NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient. In 2020 Bateman led the Auggies on an international trip to Cuba in which the players learned about the history of Cuba and Cuban culture through the game of baseball.  
 

Meet the Coach   Meet Augsburg University

 Dave Hieb is the longest tenured athletic staff member at the University of Northwestern, entering his 35th year as an athletic trainer in 2023. Coach Hieb was the head baseball coach for 28 years at UNW. Coach Hieb has led the Eagles to three Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Championships in 1996, 2021, and 2022. The Eagles participated in the NCCAA National Tournament in both 2007 and 2022, and the NCAA National Tournament in 2021. Under Coach Hieb, the Eagles have had multiple NAIA, NCCAA, and NCAA All-Region and All-American Players.
 

Coach Hieb holds many records from his time as the head baseball coach at UNW. He holds the top spot in UNW history for all-time career wins (505), seasons coached, and most games coached (1,034). He has nine 20 win seasons, two 30 win seasons, and has recorded nine of the top ten win/loss records in UNW history.
 

In addition to his work with UNW, Hieb has worked  with the Minnesota Twins Summer Instructional Program, MYAS Instructional Clinics, and currently serves as the Baseball Director for the East Ridge Athletic Association. He has  served on the WAA Baseball Board and coached their U15 team .  Coach Hied has been a featured speaker at numerous Baseball and Sports Medicine conferences throughout the Midwest. 

 Dakota Weslayan University is a private school with less than 1,000 students located in Mitchel South Dakota.  The teacher to student ratio is 12:1 giving students a highly personalized institution.  You will not get lost in the crowd.      

The 2024-2025 school year marks his fifth season as the Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator for DWU. Johnson added Recruiting Coordinator to his title at the beginning of the 2022-2023 season. The Brooklyn Park, MN native serves as the team's Pitching Coach. 

Prior to joining the Tigers, Johnson served as an Assistant and Pitching Coach for Winona State University from 2017-2021. His responsibilities for the Warriors included game management, recruiting, organization of practices and camps and field maintenance. Johnson also received his Master of Science in Leadership Education with an emphasis in sports management from Winona State in 2019.

During the summer, Johnson serves as the Head Coach for Osseo Legion Post #172 in Osseo, MN. Which is a role he started in 2015. Osseo Legion has had several student-athletes go on to play college baseball and 2 are currently playing professionally. In 2021, Johnson led the program to its first ever Minnesota Legion State Championship.

With strong ties to Minnesota Baseball and the American Legion, Johnson was selected to coach in the 4th annual Minnesota Legion Prospects Series. Which takes place August 9th - 11th 2024, at Northwestern University in Roseville, MN. Also, coached in the Minnesota Legion Prospects Series in 2023. Go All Stars!

DWU Info     DWU Coaches    Make a Baseball Inquiry       All About DWU      

A native of Minnetonka MN,  Paul Blanchard, the all-time leader in victories at Southwest Minnesota State University, is in his 27th season as head coach in 2023.

Blanchard’s 26 seasons at SMSU has been a period marked by consistently competitive baseball. His teams have recorded 564 victories, produced 15 winning seasons and have won 30 or more games four times. The Mustangs have made one NCAA Tournament appearance, captured one Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship, three NSIC Tournament championships and have made 15 appearances in the NSIC Tournament 

 One of the most respected coaches in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and NCAA Division II, Blanchard has been a head coach at the junior college and Division II level for 31 seasons.  Blanchard has recruited and coached some of the best players ever to play at SMSU. He has coached two NSIC Players of the Year, one NSIC Pitcher of the Year, 25 all-region players, five CoSIDA Academic All-Americas, four NCAA All-Americans, two Major League Baseball draft picks and one MLB free agent. He has coached 10 players who have played professional baseball following their careers at SMSU.  

Meet the Coach      Meet the Mustangs