Press Release USA Baseball
DURHAM, N.C. — USA Baseball unveiled five of the managers selected to lead national team programs in 2014 on Monday. All five of the coaches — Dave Van Horn (Univ. of Arkansas), Andy Stankiewicz (Grand Canyon Univ. – Ariz.), Chan Brown (Parkview High School – Ga.), Terrence Freeman (Eagle’s View Academy – Fla.) and Jonathan Pollard (New England Stampede – Mass.) — have previously served on a USA Baseball coaching staff.
“We are thrilled with the talented coaches that will lead USA Baseball in 2014,” said Paul Seiler, the federation’s executive director/CEO. “To have a group of coaches with prior USA Baseball experience and the impressive resumes at both the collegiate and high school levels will help continue the success we have come to expect on the international stage.”
Van Horn leads the Collegiate National Team in 2014 after serving as an assistant coach on Tim Jamieson’s (Univ. of Missouri) CNT staff in 2011. That team posted an 11-2-1 record, including a 3-1-1 record against the Japanese Collegiate All-Stars in a series contested in two locations in North Carolina as well as a doubleheader at T.D. Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Neb.
The Arkansas skipper, who has averaged more than 40 wins a season in his 11 seasons in Fayetteville, will use his prior Team USA experience as the team faces international friendship series against Chinese Taipei, Japan and Cuba (in Havana), as well as competing in the Honkbal Baseball Week tournament in Haarlem, Netherlands.
Over his first 11 seasons guiding the Razorbacks, Van Horn has notched three College World Series appearances, 11 NCAA Tournament berths, one Southeastern Conference overall title and three SEC Western Division championships.
The 18U National Team will turn to Andy Stankiewicz for the 2014 campaign. The head coach of Grand Canyon University was an assistant coach on the 2012 Collegiate National Team that traveled to Cuba for a five-game series and won the bronze medal at the Honkbal Baseball Week tournament. Stankiewicz also worked with athletes during the 2013 17U National Team Development Program that prepares young players for future national team opportunities.
In his second season with the Lopes, Stankiewicz led GCU to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II Baseball Championships, contested at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C. His team’s 40-19 record and NCAA Division II West Region Championship earned Stankiewicz the ABCA/Rawlings Division II West Region Coach of the Year award.
Stankiewicz’s coaching resume also included minor league positions with the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees, as well as three years as an assistant coach at Arizona State University.
Parkview High School head coach, Chan Brown, will manage the 15U National Team in 2014 as it competes in its first-ever 15U Baseball World Cup in La Paz, Mexico, August 1-10. Brown, who has compiled a 264-122 record since 2005 and won the 2012 Baseball America high school national championship, will serve as the manager after assisting Tom Meusborn (Cal State Univ., Northridge) and the 15U National Team to the 2013 15U Pan American Championship gold medal.
In nine seasons at Parkview High School, Brown has collected five region championships, two state championships and a Baseball America national championship to go along with a dozen coach of the year awards from four different publications, most notably the ABCA Southeastern Regional Coach of the Year in 2011 and 2012.
Additionally, Brown will lead his Parkview program into the 2014 USA Baseball National High School Invitational at the USA Baseball National Training Complex, March 26-29. The NHSI features 16 of the top high school programs in the country. Parkview competed in the inaugural NHSI in 2012, the year they went on to be named national champions.
The 12U National Team will also tab a gold-medal winning assistant as its 2014 manager, as Eagle’s View Academy head coach, Terrance Freeman, takes over. Freeman assisted manager Dave Webb (Corona del Sol High School – Ariz.) on the inaugural 12U National Team coaching staff that won the 2013 12U Baseball World Cup in Taichung, Taiwan.
Freeman is well versed in the game of baseball, having served as a national team assistant coach and spent six seasons as a professional baseball player. Freeman also worked as an assistant softball coach at the University of North Florida for three seasons.
Jonathan Pollard takes over as manager of the Women’s National Team in 2014 after serving as an assistant on the 2012 Women’s National Team that won the silver medal at the Women’s Baseball World Cup in Edmonton, Canada.
Pollard, who began his coaching career at his alma mater, Salem State, joined USA Baseball’s Women’s National Team as an assistant coach for the 2011 Women’s International Friendship Series at the USA Baseball National Training Complex. In 2012 and 2013, Pollard oversaw the women’s division of the USA Baseball National Team Identification Series — a vehicle for identifying talent for national teams. He also contributed as an instructor during the 2013 14U National Team Development Program.
Pollard, who owns and operates the New England Stampede organization out of Boston, guided a group of 34 perspective athletes during a week of training and instruction at the Women’s National Team Development Program in Boca Raton, Fla., January 6-11 to kick off USA Baseball’s 2014 on-field programming.
USA Baseball will also field a professional team in 2014 to compete in the Pan American Qualifying Tournament this year. More information will be announced at a later date.