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Bay Area native Mark O'Brien begins his sixth year as head coach at Santa Clara University. O'Brien has guided the Broncos to a 72-68 mark in West Coast Conference play the past four seasons. In only his second season he guided the Broncos to their first winning season since 1997, posting a 31-26 overall record and a 21-9 mark in league play. O'Brien became the school's 35th head coach in the 111 years of the program when he was hired on June 11th, 2001. From that point on, O'Brien's fingerprints can be found all over the program. O'Brien completed his staff soon after his own appointment, hiring Mike Oakland and Mike Zirelli as full-time assistant coaches. During his brief time on the Mission Campus, O'Brien has accomplished things that not many of his predacessors had. He became only the fourth coach in program history to win his 50th game in only his second season as head coach, joining Sal Taormina, Jerry McClain and John Oldham. The win was a savory one as he watched his team defeat the second-ranked Stanford Cardinal by a 2-0 score in Sunken Diamond, giving him his second career win over his former team. Additionally O'Brien has produced four All-Americans in his first three years as skipper, becoming the first coach in school history to produce four All-Americans in his first three years at the helm. Joey Gomes was a first team selection in 2002 followed by Scott Dierks and Patrick Overholt in 2003 who earned honorable mention and Freshman All-American honors respectively. Last season, Anthony Rea was a second team honoree. Through out his extensive coaching career, O'Brien has tutored 20 All-Americans. The three years prior to joining the Broncos, O'Brien served as an assistant coach at Stanford. O'Brien assisted with all aspects of the program and served as the Cardinal's hitting and fielding instructor, as well as the duties of first base coach. During those three seasons Stanford qualified for the College World Series, taking home a third place finish in 1999 and back-to-back national runners-up in `00 and `01. O'Brien's infield led the nation in 2001 with a .977 fielding percentage and was among the top-five in the nation in `99 and `00. O'Brien has an impressive resume, having served as the head coach at DeAnza Junior College in 1998 and spending four seasons as an assistant coach at Cal Poly in addition to his three years at Stanford. O'Brien was a critical component to the recruiting efforts at Stanford. The recruited class in 2001 was ranked No. 1 while the classes in `99 and `00 were ranked in the top-10. His talents of recruiting can be traced back even to his earlier days at DeAnza and Cal Poly. At DeAnza O'Brien was able to recruit 12 local high school seniors within a two-week period, while helping all nine sophomores already on the team continue on to four-year institutions. While at Cal Poly O'Brien assisted in recruiting three-straight classes that were ranked in the top-40 by Collegiate Baseball. In his one season at DeAnza, O'Brien led the Dons to a third-place finish in the Coast Conference. At Cal Poly, he served as recruiting coordinator, academic advisor and third base coach, as well as hitting and infield instructor. During the summers of 1996 and 1997, O'Brien served as head coach of the Anchorage Bucs in the Alaska Summer League. He led the Bucs to a 68-40 record and a league championship in 1996 while coaching four eventual first-round draft picks (Matt Ginter, Danny Peoples, Mark Redman, Alvie Shepard). Throughout his eight-year coaching career O'Brien has helped over 65 players advance on to professional baseball, including 10 first-round draft picks. O'Brien's list of first rounders includes Joe Borchard, Justin Wayne, Jason Young, and the four players from the Anchorage Bucs. He also coached the `99 minor league player of the year and current Oakland A's outfielder Adam Piatt. Currently, there are 16 players in the major leagues that have played under O'Brien at some level. Other notable players that O'Brien has coached at some critical point of their career include current member of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization Carlos Quentin, three-time all-American and Stanford's all-time leading hitter John Gall, three-time all-American and Pac-10 RBI record holder Andrew Beinbrink, Santa Clara All-American Bill Mott, and the NCAA all-time career saves leader Jack Krawczyk. O'Brien played collegiately at San Jose State from 1991-92 and was the Spartans' team captain in his final year. He was also named an Alaska Summer League All-Star in 1991 after coming to SJSU from St. Francis High School and DeAnza College. O'Brien resides in Los Gatos and is engaged to Staci Duncan, a former women's soccer All-American at UCLA and the Bruins' all-time leader in points scored. |
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