FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 16, 2014
Courtesy of Franklin Pierce Athletics Communications
RINDGE, N.H. – Head coach Jayson King of the six-time regional champion Franklin Pierce University baseball team will serve as an assistant coach on the USA Baseball 18U National Team this summer, as announced earlier this spring by USA Baseball. King joins an 18U National Team looking to defend its 2011 COPABE 18U Pan American Championship title.
King joins the 18U National Team staff under manager Andy Stankiewicz, a fellow Division II head coach at Grand Canyon University, which also captured a regional title in 2013 and joined the Ravens in Cary, N.C. The 18U National Team's field staff will be rounded out by assistant coach Burt Call, the head coach at perennial national power, Mater De High School; pitching coach Jamey Shouppe, head coach of Florida A&M; and athletic trainer Dr. Jamey Gordon.
King's first duty with the 18U National Team will be to attend the USA Baseball Tournament of Stars, a six-day event held June 17-22 at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary. Presented by Major League Baseball, the Tournament of Stars invites 108 age-eligible 18U players to Cary and serves as the primary player pool for the 18U National Team. After the Tournament of Stars, the player pool will be whittled to a more manageable size for the 18U National Team Trials & Training event, to be held later this summer.
The 18U National Team's signature event in 2014 is the COPABE 18U Pan American Championship. COPABE is the acronym for the Confederación Panamericana de Béisbol, or the Pan American Baseball Confederation. The 2014 edition of the 18U Pan American Championship will be held in early fall in the Mexican cities of Lagos de Moreno and Aguascalientes. Team USA will be looking to defend the title it captured at the 2011 edition of the event.
In each of the past two years, the 18U National Team has captured the International Baseball Federation's 18U World Cup. Prominent 18U National Team alums include Mike Mussina, John Smoltz, Joe Mauer, Justin Upton and Bryce Harper.
For King, the 18U National Team will be his third chance to work with the sport's national governing body. Last year, he worked with the 17U National Team Development Program and, this past January, he was involved with the 2014 Women's National Team Development Program.
Currently in the midst of his 16th season at the helm for Franklin Pierce, King has captured six regional titles, made three trips to the national semifinals, coached 23 All-America selections and has had 25 players selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. King's teams have won at least 30 games in each of the last 12 seasons and he won the 500th game of his career in 2012. He is a six-time ABCA/Rawlings Region Coach of the Year selection.