John WelkerHead Coach - (206) 920-8426
Coach Welker is in his second season as head baseball coach for the Roadrunners. In 2011 with five returning players he began to rebuild the COD program. The Roadrunners improved from a 13-23 overall record in 2011 to a 3rd place league finish, 15-9 and 18-16 overall for the 2012 season.
Coach Welker has over 30 years of coaching experience which includes coaching select players for Baseball Northwest & West Coast Baseball Training and Development Academy in Seattle, Washington, Baseball Northwest /Washington State’s Senior Fall Scout team, Arizona Fall Showcase Team, Baseball Northwest Regional Team at Baseball America's Perfect Game Tournaments in Florida, and 18U Northwest Timberjack’s Prospect Scout Team in Tacoma, Washington. From 2006 to 2010 coach Welker rebuilt Sumner high school’s baseball program (Sumner, WA). In 2010 Welker coached them to their first Washington State Tournament of Champions in 25 years and was nominated for Sumner school district Coach of the Year.
Coach Welker has a passion for helping athletes reach the next level. In the past eight years of coaching select and prospect players, 100 players went on to play Division-I baseball and 34 players were drafted by MLB.
Coach John Welker and his wife, Jill, have thre grown sons. All three received Division-I baseball scholarships, two played professionally, one of whom currently is on the 40-man roster, playing Triple-A ball for the Pittsburgh Pirate organization.
Emmitt WilsonAssistant CoachCoach Wilson begins his 5th year with the Roadrunners. Emmitt has been involved in baseball as a player, coach and administrator for over 30 years. Originally from the San Francisco Bay area, he recently moved to the desert from Anchorage, Alaska where he was commissioner of the Alaska summer league for 15 years.
Eric Vasquez
Assistant Coach - (480) 242-6427Eric Vasquez played at Valencia High School before playing two years at Fullerton Community College in Fullerton, California. He graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a B.S. in Human Services.
A longtime coach and athletic director at the high school level, Vasquez has received Coach of the Year and Athletic Director of the Year honors in Arizona. His coaching experience includes time in Denver, Phoenix and Gilbert, Arizona. Spent time in Illinois in Spring 2012 as an assistant coach for the Eureka (Ill.) College Red Devils. Last summer he helped the Palm Springs Power to another Southern California Collegiate Baseball League Championship.
Eric will be serving as the pitching coach this season.
Eric and his wife Shanna have five kids; Karsten, 12, Cooper, 11, Easton, 10, Peyton, 9 and Tessa, 8.
Bill GrotenrathStrength Coach - ACSM, NSCABill started volunteering at College of the Desert in the fall of 2000 and has now been acting as our Strength Coach since 2001. He has been involved in weight training for over 40 years, he competed in Olympic lifting, Powerlifting and was a State and National champion in the Masters Division besides also officiating in ADFPA, AAU, and USAPL events for many years. Bill also works with individual students, men and women, on enhancing their general physical fitness and specific strength goals.