Campus Community Invited to Meet Three Baseball Head Coach Candidates

Three candidates for the head baseball coach position at St. Thomas will be on campus for interviews on Jan. 4, 5 and 6.

An open session for the campus community to meet and hear from the candidates will be held from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. each of the three days in Room 110, the Tommy Room, in the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex. The room is across the hall from the weight room.

All are welcome to attend the sessions:

Tuesday, Jan. 4

Jason Verdugo, head baseball coach at Hamline University, will be on campus. Verdugo has been the head coach at Hamline since 2001. He also has experience as the pitching coach for the St. Paul Saints and manager of the Evansville Otters (Indiana). A graduate and former football and baseball athlete at Arizona State University, he is well known in Twin Cities baseball circles.

Wednesday, Jan. 5

Chris Olean, interim head baseball coach at St. Thomas, will be available to meet the campus community on Jan. 5. Olean led the Tommies to an MIAC championship, an MIAC playoff championship and to the NCAA Regionals in the 2010 season. Olean was the pitching coach for former head coach Dennis Denning for nine years, including the 2009 NCAA championship season. He is a graduate of St. Thomas and pitched for the Tommies for four seasons.

Thursday, Jan. 6

Brian Raabe, head baseball coach at Forest Lake High School, will be on campus on Jan. 6. Raabe was an All-American player for the Minnesota Gophers, played 10 years of professional baseball and has spent the past 10 years as the Forest Lake High School coach. Raabe also is well-known and respected in Twin Cities baseball circles. He has been involved in Minnesota Twins camps and other clinics throughout the area.