Van Ostrand Arizona Wildcats new director of player development

Sept. 10, 2015

Johnson Rounds Out Coaching Staff With Four More Hires
By Arizona Athletics

TUCSON, Ariz.--- Marc Wanaka, Ray McIntire, Michael Bradshaw, and Jimmy Van Ostrand have all been brought on as the final pieces to the 2015-16 Arizona baseball coaching staff, head coach Jay Johnson announced on Thursday.

Wanaka, McIntire, and Bradshaw all join Johnson in Tucson after spending time on his staff at Nevada and helped guide the Wolf Pack to one of the best seasons in school history a year ago, while Van Ostrand joins the staff after spending two seasons (2014, 2015) as a volunteer assistant coach at Boston College.

In 2015, Nevada posted a 41-15 record and captured the school’s first-ever Mountain West title with a 22-6 mark in league play. The Wolf Pack was ranked in the top 25 for much of the season and totaled a 13-1 record in series of at least three games. The 41 overall wins ranked second in program history.

The four join assistant coaches Dave Lawn and Sergio Brown, who were both hired back on July 9 to make up Johnson’s six-man staff.

“I am very excited about completing our staff with people of this quality,” said Johnson. “They all will represent Arizona baseball in a first class manner and our players will benefit greatly from having Marc, Jimmy, Ray, and Michael in the program. Each of these staff members will add significant value executing their roles within the program at a very high level.”

Wanaka joins the group as a volunteer assistant coach, spending the previous two seasons at Nevada with Johnson.

Prior to his arrival at Nevada, Wanaka served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at San Diego Mesa College for four seasons. In his four years there, the team’s ERA dropped from 5.66 to 3.72 under Wanaka’s direction. SDMS was the 2012 co-champions of the Pacific Coast Conference.

Wanaka also served as the associate head coach and pitching coach at El Paso Community College from 2007-09. The 2008 squad advanced to the Region 5 playoffs.

Prior to El Paso Community College, he served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. from 2003-07. The 2004 and 2005 teams competed in the Northern California State playoffs.

During the 2002-03 campaign he coached at Point Loma Nazarene University (Calif.), where he worked with the pitchers and catchers. The Sea Lions finished second in the Golden State Athletic Conference.

Van Ostrand will serve as the team’s director of player development and brings of wealth of playing experience, as he spent eight years playing international and minor league baseball before retiring in 2013.

He spent the 2015 college campaign as volunteer assistant coach for Boston College, where he primarily worked with hitters, corner infielders and prepared scouting reports and defensive alignments. He also helped coach outfielder Chris Shaw, who was drafted as the 31st overall pick by the San Francisco Giants in the 2015 MLB Draft. He was Boston College’s highest draft pick since 2009.

The Vancouver, B.C., native had been a member of the Canadian National Baseball Team since 2007. He played in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, three Baseball World Cups, the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2011 Pan American Games. He drove in the only two runs for his team in the Pan Am Championship game to lead Canada to a 2-1 victory and the gold medal over the United States. In the Olympics, he was 4-for-14 with two RBI and helped the Canadians bring home bronze medals in both the 2009 and 2011 World Cups.

He played Division I baseball at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for two seasons before he was drafted in the eighth round by the Houston Astros in the 2006 MLB First-Year Players Draft.

McIntire will serve as Arizona’s director of baseball operations after spending the previous two seasons at Nevada, one as volunteer assistant coach and the other as the assistant director of operations.

In addition to his duties at Nevada, he also developed coaching experience while serving as an assistant coach for the Peninsula Oilers in the Alaskan Baseball League during the summer of 2014. He also spent three seasons as an infielder on the Wolf Pack baseball team and graduated in 2013 with his Bachelor’s degree in human development.

Bradshaw joins the program as the assistant director of baseball operations and was teammates with McIntire during the 2013 campaign at Nevada. He also served as director of player of development for the Wolf Pack during the 2015 season.

Before playing collegiately at Nevada, Bradshaw pitched for two seasons at Linn-Benton Community College and dually enrolled in classes at Oregon State. He graduated from the University of Nevada in 2014, while earning his Bachelor’s degree in community health sciences.

ArizonaWildcats.com.