COACHES and PLAYERS 15 Head Coach
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1 COACHES AND PLAYERS 15 Head Coach Tim Chambers enters his fourth season as the head coach of the UNLV Rebels baseball team. He led the Rebels to a 37-20 overall record in 2013, which was the most wins for the program since 2004. Tim Chambers Going into the 2013 season, UNLV was tabbed to finish fifth in the Mountain Head Coach West. The youthful Rebels proved the coaches and critics wrong by finishing second with an 18-12 record in MW play. Fourth Season A highlight to the 2013 season came in non-conference play when UNLV trav- eled to Stanford and swept the No. 9 ranked Cardinal. The Rebels were named the Louisville Slugger National Team of the Week by CollegeBaseballInsider.com for their efforts. That propelled the team into the rankings for the first time in a decade as UNLV 6 was ranked as high as No. 21 by Baseball America. In 2012, Chambers reached a career milestone early in the season, his 500th win. He came into the season needing only one win, and the Rebels help him reach the at UNLV historic mark with a 6-1 win over Loyola Marymount in the second game of the season. YEAR RECORD ACCOLADES In his first season at the helm of the Rebel program, he led UNLV to a 33-25, 2011 33-25 Led the Rebels to first 30-win season since 2005 marking the first time the squad had reached the 30-win plateau since the 2005 sea- 2012 26-31 Earned his 500th career win over LMU son. Record 59-56 Chambers ushered in a new era of Rebel baseball in dramatic fashion, racing out to the best start in program history through 21 games, posting a 17-4 mark. In that span, UNLV went from unranked to cracking the top-30 in both the National College Baseball Writers Association and the USA Today/ESPN Coaches polls for three con- at College of Southern Nevada secutive weeks. Among the 33 wins in 2011 were three over nationally ranked opponents, includ- YEAR RECORD ACCOLADES ing No. 9 TCU, No. 11 UC Irvine and No. 14 Arizona. The 23 wins at Wilson Stadium 2000 47-10 were the most at home since the 2004 season when UNLV posted a 26-10 mark. 2001 52-9 Four Rebels earned all-conference honors following the season while two were 2002 42-17 named All-Americans. Junior pitcher Tanner Peters became the first UNLV hurler 2003 55-10 SWAC Champions/Region 18 Champions/ to earn conference pitcher of the year honors and was named a Louisville Slugger Western Disctrict Champions/NJCAA National Third Team All-American while closer Zack Hartman became UNLV’s first freshman Champions/Region 18 Coach of the Year/ All-American since 2003. ABCA Coach of the Year/NJCAA National One of the country’s most successful baseball mentors at the high school, Amer- Coach of the Year ican Legion and then junior college levels over the past two decades, Chambers took 2004 39-20-1 SWAC Co-Champions over the Rebels after 11 seasons leading the nationally ranked College of Southern 2005 46-14 SWAC Champions/Region 18 Nevada program. He has also served as athletics director for CSN since 2003. Coach of the Year Named the Scenic West Athletic Conference Coach of the Year four times, in- 2006 13-45 cluding his final season, Chambers built the Coyotes’ powerful program from the 2007 41-18 SWAC Champions/Region 18 ground up and has enjoyed stunning success: seven conference championships, Coach of the Year/ABCA Coach of the Year three region titles, two dis- trict crowns and the 2003 2008 44-16 SWAC Champions/ Region 18 Champions/ JUCO World Series Cham- ABCA Coach of the Year pionship. The 2010 squad, 2009 35-20 2nd Place SWAC led by top Major League 2010 51-16 SWAC Champions/Region 18 Champions/ Baseball draft pick Bryce Western District Champions/Third Place, Harper, was ranked second NJCAA World Series/Region 18 in the nation and finished Coach of the Year/Western District Coach of 52-16 overall after reaching the Year/ ABCA Coach of the Year/ School the national semifinals. record 10 players drafted Before moving to Record 466-195-1 CSN, Chambers served as head coach at Las Vegas’ Bishop Gorman High School from 1991-99 where he won six consecutive Sunset Division champion- ships (1992-97) and was the state runner-up in 1997. The NIAA High School Baseball Coach of the Year in 1993 and ‘94 was also head coach of the American Legion Las Vegas Knights from 1991-99, winning numerous local, regional and national awards. The three-time state champions played in the 1998 Ameri- can Legion World Series and finished the season ranked fifth in the nation. After a college playing career that saw him named all-conference at three different schools, in- cluding earning All-America honors at Dixie College in 1984, Chambers earned his bachelor’s degree from Southern Utah University in 1989. Chambers and his wife, Kimberlie, have two daughters, McKenzie, who is a student at UNLV,and Chase. He hails from the Sooner State, as he was born and raised in Claremore, Okla. and comes from Cherokee decent. 16 Associate Head Coach who finished the season with a 6-5 record to go with a 3.59 ERA. Fedde finished fifth in the Mountain West in strikeouts with 66 Stan Stolte and was sixth in ERA. He held batters to a .261 average, which was good enough for seventh best in the conference. He pitched Associate Head Coach 90.1 innings on the year, which was the fifth most innings of work Fourth Season in the MW. In 2011, Stolte helped mold a pair of All-Americans in Tanner Peters and Zack Hartman. Peters, a 16th-round selection in the 2011 MLB Amateur Draft by the Oakland A’s, was named the 2011 28 Mountain West Pitcher of the Year after a spectacular junior sea- son in which he posted a 9-4 record and 1.50 ERA. Peters threw eight complete games in 2011, ranking second in Associate head coach Stan Stolte enters his fourth season at the nation behind UCLA’s Trevor Bauer (9). He broke the Mountain UNLV, serving as the Rebels pitching coach and recruiting coordi- West record for complete games in both a single season and ca- nator. reer and is tied for complete-game shutouts in a career with former Overall Stolte has sent 15 players to the Major Leagues and 2009 No. 1 overall MLB selection Stephen Strasburg. The Rebel has developed 17 All-Americans. He has mentored four confer- ace was named a Louisville Slugger Third Team All-American fol- ence pitchers of the year, including two of the last three (Buddy lowing his final season in Rebel Red. Borden, 2013; Tanner Peters, 2011). 83 of his players have signed Hartman registered eight saves in his freshman campaign and professional contracts and he saw 26 of his pitchers named to all- notched a 5-2 record in 22 appearances on the hill for the Rebels. conference teams. His 2.35 ERA was second lowest on the team while his 29 strike- In 2013, he helped junior Buddy Borden develop in to one of outs in just 38.1 innings of work ranked fourth on the team. the best pitchers in the Mountain West. Borden, a seventh-round Also in 2011, he guided the program to the No. 32 ranked re- draft pick in the 2013 MLB First Year Player Draft by the Pittsburgh cruiting class in the country by Collegiate Baseball. Pirates, was named the 2013 MW Co-Pitcher of the Year after he Stolte is no stranger to baseball in the Silver State, having went 8-2 with a 2.59 ERA served on the coaching staff at in-state rival Nevada, Reno for 14 Borden’s ERA was the lowest in the conference, his eight wins seasons, including spending his last four as the associate head was tied for second most and he finished with 77 strikeouts, which coach of the Wolf Pack program. Stolte also served as the pitching ranked seventh in the MW. He held batters to a .233 average in coach and recruiting coordinator during his time in Reno, helping 100.2 innings of work, which were both good for fourth in the con- UNR to NCAA tournament appearances in 1997, 1999 and 2000. ference, respectively. At UNR, Stolte developed 22 all-conference pitchers, three As a pitching staff in 2013, the Rebels had the second lowest freshman All-Americans and two WAC Pitcher of the Year win- ERA at 4.34 in the Mountain West, which caters to the batters since ners, including 2010 honoree Brock Stassi, who led the league the ballparks in the MW sit at a higher elevation.The team also held with a 3.43 ERA while compiling a 7-4 overall record. Stolte has batters to a .271 average, recorded 409 strikeouts and allowed coached 35 pitchers and 14 position players that have made it to only 169 walks, all of which ranked second in the MW, respectively. the professional ranks, including Dan Reichert, who was a 1997 In 2012, he mentored Freshman All-American Erick Fedde, first round selection of the Kansas City Royals. He also mentored Chad Qualls and Darrell Rasner, who were taken in the second round of the MLB draft in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Qualls was a key bullpen member of the Houston Astros when they advanced to the 2005 World Series, and he is currently with the Miami Marlins.