Head Coach Eric Valenzuela Announces Coaching Staff for 2020 Season

Daniel Costanza, Eric Valenzuela, Bryan Peters

Photo by: John Fajardo

Head Coach Eric Valenzuela Announces Coaching Staff for 2020 Season

6/21/2019 1:00:00 PM | Baseball

New Dirtbags head coach Eric Valenzuela has announced his coaching staff for the upcoming baseball season. Valenzuela will retain his assistant coaches from his most recent tenure at Saint Mary’s, bringing associate head coach Bryan Peters, assistant coach Daniel Costanza and volunteer assistant coach Ross Gusky with him to Long Beach State.

By: Tyler Hendrickson, Associate Athletic Communications Director

PHOTO GALLERY

LONG BEACH, Calif. – New Dirtbags head coach Eric Valenzuela announced his coaching staff for the upcoming season at his introductory press conference on Friday. Valenzuela confirmed that associate head coach Bryan Peters, assistant coach Daniel Costanza and volunteer assistant coach Ross Gusky will join him at Long Beach State, reuniting Valenzuela's staff from his previous stop at Saint Mary's.

"I am so honored to be bringing all of my assistant coaches from Moraga to Long Beach," Valenzuela said. "We work extremely well together and feel strongly about our system. We are a group with no egos, just coaches that have our players' best interest at heart. I can't wait to get on the field and start a new chapter with the best coaches in the country on my side!"

Peters spent just one season with Valenzuela at Saint Mary's, but brings over two decades of college coaching experience to Long Beach. He began his coaching career at his alma mater, South Florida, where he spent nine seasons as an assistant. As a player, he helped the Bulls to NCAA Regional appearances in both of his seasons there. He has also made assistant coaching stops at Stetson, UCF, High Point, Pittsburgh, and Nova Southeastern during his career.

Specializing in coaching offense, Peters' teams have racked up program records in several offensive categories across multiple stops. While at Nova Southeastern, his offense led the nation in home runs with 97 in 2017, and in 2018 the Sharks ranked in the national Top 25 in eight different offensive categories. In Peters' one season at Saint Mary's, he led one of the top offenses in the West Coast Conference. The Gaels were top three in the WCC in batting average, runs, hits, doubles, home runs, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

Costanza has worked his way up on Valenzuela's staff since starting as the director of baseball operations at Saint Mary's in 2014. He then spent two seasons as the team's volunteer assistant coach before being promoted to assistant coach for the 2017 campaign. Prior to last season, he also added the title of recruiting coordinator to his list of responsibilities with the Gaels.

Prior to his stint at Saint Mary's, Costanza coached for two years at Cal State East Bay. He began his coaching career at his alma mater, York College in Nebraska, where he coached for two seasons. Costanza is a Northern California native who also served as an assistant coach at Clayton Valley High School. As a player, Costanza was a starting second baseman for York College, hitting .312 in his career while helping the team to back-to-back conference championships in 2010 and 2011.

Gusky has spent the past three years as the volunteer assistant coach at Saint Mary's, beginning with the 2017 season. As a player, Gusky pitched for two seasons at Tallahassee Community College and two more at Valdosta State. Gusky began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Valdosta State, where he coached from 2013-15. He also served as an assistant coach with the Waynesboro Generals of the Valley Baseball League prior to his time at Saint Mary's.

Valenzuela also announced that he will be retaining Long Beach State's current director of baseball operations, Ryan Day, who just completed his first season with the Dirtbags in 2019.