Baseball - Raider Athletics - Pierce College District 11

Baseball Coaches

Orion Jones

Head Coach

Head Coach Orion Jones is entering his third year as the Skipper of the Pierce College Raiders. Coach Jones was born and raised in Port Angeles, Washington where he was a standout football and baseball player. After playing for Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington, he was recruited and played in an elite wooden bat summer league program in Lexington Kentucky. From there, Coach Jones had stints at the University of West Florida, Wilmington Ohio and another summer in Kentucky, before settling down at Central Washington University where he was a 2 year varsity letterman and starting outfielder. In his senior year Jones batted .313 with 12 doubles 22 RBI's and 2 HR.

In the winter of 2003 Orion Jones became the Graduate Assistant at Missouri Valley College (MVC). MVC is part of the Heart of America Athletic Conference, one of the toughest NAIA conferences in the country. While there, Coach Jones obtained his Masters Degree in Business with a 3.7 GPA and Deans List Honors. Upon graduation Jones was hired as the Head Coach and General Manager of the Casper Oilers in Casper Wyoming. During that summer he applied for and received the Head Coaching position at Pierce College in Lakewood, Washington. Currently, Coach Jones is a Business Instructor with Teacher of the Year Honors under his belt and lives in Spanaway, Washington, with his beautiful wife, Khrista. He Coaches the NW Warriors during the summer with long time friend and coach, Matt Rene.

In the two years that Coach Jones has been at the helm of Pierce College, he has turned the program around. Last year (2008) he led the Raiders to their first post season appearance at the NWAACC tournament in Longview WA, in 28 years. In a recent interview regarding the upcoming season (2009), Jones had this to say. "We are young, but we have some big strong athletes and great pitching. I miss my Wyoming boys and the tenacity of last years team, but we are a very competitive ball team this year and how hard these boys work as individuals will dictate their success as a team."

If you are interested in playing baseball for Coach Jones and the Pierce College Raiders please send your information to ojones@pierce.ctc.edu Thank you for your time and interest in the program and GO RAIDERS!!!!!!

Coaching Philosophies

Core Concepts:

The basis of my coaching philosophy is very simple, hard work, intelligence, integrity, respect, and discipline. These five basic principles create an environment that is advantageous towards making better college baseball players and developing better men. The influence that I have over their baseball career last two to four years, the influence I have on them as human beings last a lifetime.

Game management and baseball teaching philosophies

I live off of defense, pitching, speed, and the short game. I believe that these are aspects of the game I can control. Power is great and I know how to teach power, but great pitching will beat great hitting any day of the week. Baseball is a chest game from a strategy aspect, a poker game from a percentage aspect, and a true test of ones physical and psychological strengths. I teach my team how to out play the game. My defense knows what pitch is being thrown and who is at the plate in regards to power potential and tendencies, they shift accordingly per pitch. The majority of my players have a green light on the base paths, I have taught them how to read counts, situations, and percentages. They know from watching the opposing teams pre-game what weaknesses they have and how to exploit them. This knowledge has allowed us to steal 94 bases in 44 ball games last season.

My teams bunt and bunt well. Sacrifices, squeezes, push-bunts, drag-bunts, and slashes are all intricate offensive parts of any team I coach. First and third squeezes, double squeezes, slash and runs, delayed steals, back pick steals and many others. I have learned how and when to force situations and also when to just let my team play. Teaching these philosophies has allowed me to take a team that was 6 and 44 the year before I took over, and had not had a winning season in 20 years and create a winning baseball program.

Psychology:

"90% of this game is 100% mental" Yogi Berra. I tell my team that practice, preparation, and mental focus trumps pressure. I create practice environments that simulate game situations and game pressure as often as I can. I know how to push mental and physical buttons with out pushing to hard. I believe that one of my strongest aspects is mental strength, I also believe that attitude reflects leadership, so my team needs to be mentally strong as well.

Summary

I have a work ethic that is second to none. I believe that if you out work the other person off the field, you will win when you are on it. My players respect me and enjoy playing for me. I care deeply for my player's and will bend over backwards for them. I retain a 35 man roster that has a 2.9 team GPA, and my teams are pillars in the community, because of the structure and discipline of my overall program.