FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
HONOLULU – University of Hawai‘i Rainbow baseball head coach Mike Trapasso announced the hiring of Rusty McNamara as an assistant baseball coach Thursday.
McNamara comes to Hawai‘i after coaching three seasons at the University of California, Riverside. During his team at UCR, McNamara was the hitting coach, first base coach and was in charge of outfielders.
During his time with the Highlanders, UCR won over 30 games in both 2009 and 2010, coaching the team to batting averages of .294 and .311 in those two seasons.
While at UCR, the Oklahoma State graduate coached with two summer league teams. In 2009, McNamara was the manager of the Rochester Honkers, the Northwoods League champions. He was named the Northwoods League Manager of the Year while his team was ranked the fourth best summer league team in the nation by Rivals.com. During the summer of 2008, McNamara was the head assistant for the Anchorage Glacier Pilots in the Alaska Baseball League.
McNamara started his collegiate playing career at Riverside Community College, earning all-conference and all-region honors. He then transferred to Oklahoma State, where he earned his degree in 1998. At OSU, he earned all-Big 8 Tournament and all-NCAA Regional honors in 1995. He then was a first team all-Big 8 and honorable mention all-America honoree in 1996. In 1997, McNamara was named first team all-Big 12 and a third team All American.
After college, the Riverside, Calif., native was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 21st round of the Major League Baseball Draft. He played six years in the Phillies organization, being named to five minor league all-star teams. After finishing the 2001 season in AAA Scranton, McNamara spent a year in the Atlanta Braves organization before playing professional baseball in Italy.
The Rainbows begin the 2011 season with a four-game series vs. Oregon from Feb. 18-20 at Les Murakami Stadium.
