Matt Deggs
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M baseball assistant Matt Deggs has been promoted to associate head coach, Aggie head coach Rob Childress announced Wednesday.
Entering his fourth season as the third base coach at A&M, Deggs is in charge of running the offense and the infielders while assisting in recruiting.
“This title better describes what he’s done for our program the last three years and what he’ll continue to do hopefully for a long time,” Childress said. “We feel very lucky to have Matt in our program and this promotion to Associate Head Coach is one that is well-deserved and well-earned.”
Deggs utilizes an aggressive offensive attack that he describes as a “pack mentality” approach, one that has paid big dividends as it has helped the Aggies capture back-to-back Big 12 championships.
Over the last two seasons, A&M has hit .314 with 147 home runs and over 1,400 hits and 900 runs driven in, the best two-year totals in nearly a decade. In addition, the Aggies have swiped nearly 250 bases at a better than 75 percent success rate. In 2008, six players who saw regular time hit over .315 for the year, while seven drove in at least 38 runs apiece.
Deggs, a native of Texas City, played for then assistant coach Childress at Northwood University in 1993. Additionally, they spent two years together on Dave Van Horn’s staff at Northwestern (La.) State in 1996 and 1997, and both served a stint as the head coach at Texarkana Junior College.
One of only a handful of coaches to win both a Big 12 and an SEC title, Deggs spent three seasons at Arkansas as the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator for Van Horn from 2003 to 2005. He coached three All-SEC players and three freshman All-Americans while helping the Hogs to the SEC Championship and a trip to the College World Series in 2004.
Prior to his stint at Arkansas, Deggs spent five seasons as the head coach at Texarkana College, leading the team to two Texas Eastern Athletic Conference runner-up finishes, a pair of TEAC titles and the school’s first trip to the JUCO World Series.
Deggs was an infielder at Alvin Junior College from 1991-92 and at Northwood University from 1993-94. He played professionally for three years for the Mobile (Ala.) Baysharks and the Tennessee Tomahawks, two of which were spent as a player/coach under former Boston Red Sox manager Butch Hobson and former Red Sox catcher Mike O’ Berry.
Deggs and his wife Kathy, Texas A&M Class of 1994, have a son, Kyler, and two daughters, Klaire and Khloe.
