|
Weathers Named Head Coach for USA Baseball
Wright State's Cooper, Utah's Kinneberg and UNCW's Scalf Make Up Staff
March 29, 2007
DURHAM, NC—Long Beach State’s Mike Weathers, now in his 17th
year as a head coach and sixth with the Dirtbag Baseball, will be the
head coach for USA Baseball this summer. Three current head coaches will
serve as assistants in: Wright State’s Rob Cooper and Utah’s
Bill Kinneberg.UNC-Wilmington’s Mark Scalf. Niall Adler, the current
baseball sports information director at Long Beach State, will serve as
the media relations contact. Based out of Durham, NC, the group of collegiate
sophomores and freshmen will tour the Northeast and travel to the Pan
American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and to the Netherlands as part
of a 57-day tour. The decision awaits U.S. Olympic Committee approval.
This will be Weathers’ third tour with USA Baseball, as Weathers
was an assistant for Team USA in 2003 when the U.S. won a silver medal
at the Pan American Games behind future Golden Spikes Award winner, and
former LBSU pitcher, Jered Weaver. Weathers was chosen to represent the
U.S. at the World Games in South America in 1970. Weathers has coached
the Dirtbags to four NCAA Regionals and two Super Regionals, producing
35 professional players and eight first or second round selections. With
over 465 wins to his credit, he has been a head coach at Utah and Chapman
College in Orange County and was an assistant for LBSU from 1993 to 2001.
During his tenure as a head coach at LBSU, the Dirtbags have had five
national team players, six conference players of the year and coached
12 All-Americans. Along with Weaver, first round pick Evan Longoria was
a Golden Spikes Award Finalist in 2006. Weathers is the second LBSU coach
to have a tenure with Team USA. Former Coach Dave Snow was an assistant
on the 1992 Olympic team, and was also an assistant during the summers
of 1995 and 1996.
Cooper is in his third season at Wright State, guiding the Raiders to
58 wins over his first two seasons. In 2006, WSU reached the NCA Regional
in Corvallis, falling to the eventual national champions. Cooper’s
previous international experience was the USA Junior Team in 2000. The
former University of Miami player spent 12 seasons as an assistant at
Oral Roberts, Tulane, Wake Forest, Miami and Sacramento City College.
During his coaching career he has been a part of five NCAA Tournament
teams and two College World Series appearances.
Kinneberg, a 21-year coaching veteran, has set school records for victories
at three stops during his career, UTEP (1985), Wyoming (1990) and Utah
(1996). Kinneberg’s international experience extends to director
of Team USA’s Athlete Develop Program the early part of this decade
and as the pitching coach for the U.S. National Team in 1999 and the Italian
Olympic team in 2004. Kinneberg is currently in his fourth year as the
head coach at Utah and enters the year with 322 victories over 11 years
as a head coach. From 1996 to 2001, he was the associate head coach at
Arizona, following a one-year stint as the head coach at Utah in 1996.
Kinneberg spent seven years as the Head Coach at Wyoming and the 1985
season at UTEP. He was also an assistant at Arizona State from 1992 to
1994, helping the Sun Devils to two CWS appearances in 1993 and 1994.
Scalf is in his 16th year as the head coach at his alma mater, UNC Wilmington,
producing four-straight 40-win seasons. Previous international experience
includes a 2003 stint with Team USA, with Weathers and than Head Coach
Ray Tanner. In 21 years associated with the program, Scalf has recruited
61 all-conference players and three conference players of the year. A
total of 44 players have signed professional contracts. He has won over
483 games and has eight straight winning seasons, culminating in three
of the last four NCAA Regionals.
The 2007 USA Baseball Team will open up its season with games in New England
starting on June 19, running through June 24. They will return to the
National Training Site in Cary, NC from June 26-28 before taking on an
international opponent June 29 through July 3 and Japan from July 4 to
9. The Pan American Games start on July 14 and run through July 19. The
U.S. will then return home to play another international opponent on American
soil, before playing the Netherlands in North Carolina form July 28 to
30. The tour ends with various international teams in The Netherlands
from August 3 to 12.
|
