Page 40 - DBU Baseball 20-21 Media Guide

DAN FITZGERALD–ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH
ALL-AMERICANS RECRUITED BY FITZGERALD
Bryce Ball (2019) MD Johnson (2019) Trevor Conn (2018) Devlin Granberg (2018) Darrick Hall (2016) Colin Poche (2016) Chance Adams (2015)
FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICANS RECRUITED BY FITZGERALD
Jeffrey David (2020) Luke Eldred (2018) Jimmy Glowenke (2018) Jameson Hannah (2016) Dalton Higgins (2015) Camden Duzenack (2014) David Martinelli (2014)
TOP 10 ROUND MLB DRAFT PICKS RECRUITED BY FITZGERALD
2nd Round - Burl Carraway (Chicago Cubs – 2020)
2nd Round - Jimmy Glowenke (San Francisco Giants – 2020) 2nd Round - Jameson Hannah (Oakland Athletics - 2018)
4th Round - Seth Elledge (Seattle Mariners - 2017)
5th Round - Chance Adams (New York Yankees - 2015)
6th Round - Devlin Granberg (Boston Red Sox - 2018)
6th Round - MD Johnson (Miami Marlins - 2019)
6th Round - David Martinelli (Philadelphia Phillies - 2016)
7th Round - Dalton Higgins (New York Yankees - 2017)
9th Round - Matt Duce (St. Louis Cardinals - 2018)
9th Round - Camden Duzenack (Arizona Diamondbacks - 2017)
40 MEET THE PATRIOTS RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dan Fitzgerald enters his ninth season at DBU and serves as the Patriots’ Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator. Regarded as one of the top recruiters in the country, Baseball America rated Fitzgerald as the No. 7 assistant coach in the nation in 2018, while D1Baseball. com ranked him as the 17th best recruiter in college baseball in 2016. In a survey of 90 head coaches conducted by Baseball America in 2020, Fitzgerald was rated No. 7 on a list of assistant coaches from across in the nation that will one day make the best head coach.
Since he arrived at DBU in 2013, the Patriots have landed a league-high 58 players on the Missouri Valley All-Conference Team that were recruited and signed by Fitzgerald. On the national level, seven Patriots have earned All- American honors, while seven freshman have been tabbed as Freshman All- Americans. During his eight seasons at DBU, Fitzgerald has seen 10 players garner top honors in the Missouri Valley Conference.
In 2016 and 2018, the Patriots’ Darick Hall and Devlin Granberg were each named the Joe Carter Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year. Hall was also tabbed as the MVC’s Newcomer of the Year in 2016, while Kody Funderburk earned Newcomer of the Year honors in 2018. On the mound, Colin Poche (2016) and Trevor Conn (2018) were each honored as the MVC Pitcher of the Year, while Camden Duzenack (2017) and Jimmy Glowenke (2018) were each named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Fitzgerald has also helped to produce the MVC Freshman of the Year in Jameson Hannah (2016) and Jimmy Glowekne (2018).
At the professional level, 30 of Fitzgerald’s signees at DBU have been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft. Among the program’s 30 draft picks who were recruited and developed by Fitzgerald, 11 have been taken in the top 10 rounds.
Fitzgerald has also signed and helped produce three of the top four draft picks
in school history in Carraway, Glowenke, and Hannah, who were each second roundselections.
During his five years as the head coach at Des Moines Area Community College, Fitzgerald coached Scott Schebler, who went on to be drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers and is now in his sixth season in the Major Leagues.
Fitzgerald’s recruiting efforts have been recognized nationally, as Collegiate Baseball ranked DBU’s 2016 recruiting class No. 27 in the nation, while the 2015 class was tabbed No. 32. In the previous four recruiting classes, Fitzgerald has been instrumental in signing 20 high school All-Americans, as well as the Louisville Slugger National High School Pitcher of the Year in 2015.
Fitzgerald came to DBU from Des Moines Area Community College in Boone, Iowa, where he was the head coach from 2008-2012. In his five years at the helm of DMACC, Fitzgerald was awarded Coach of the Year by 13 different publications, as his Bears advanced to the Junior College World Series on four separate occasions. His club also captured five straight conference championships and 14 players were drafted during that five-year span. Fitzgerald also saw 36 players sign with NCAA Division I programs from all over the country and coached nine Junior College All-Americans, including the 2009 National Player of the Year.
No stranger to NCAA Division I Baseball, Fitzgerald started his coaching career at the University of Iowa in 2000, where he was on the same staff as former Dallas Baptist Assistant, Travis Wyckoff. Fitzgerald also coached at Northern Iowa Community College, Flagler College, and was an assistant at DMACC under Wyckoff before assuming the reigns when Wyckoff left for Dallas Baptist in 2008. Under Fitzgerald, the Bears averaged almost 50 wins per season and sent six players to DBU: Cody Beam, Joel Hutter, Travis Meiners, Tyler Robbins, Sean Stutzman, and Paul Voelker.
Fitzgerald also has spent time as a head coach in top summer leagues around the country, including a stint in 2004 in Alaska as the Field Manager for Athletes in Action, the sport ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.
A native of Edina, Minnesota, Fitzgerald attended and played baseball at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls before graduating with a degree in English from the University of Minnesota in 2000. Most recently, he earned a Masters of Education in Kinesiology from Dallas Baptist University in 2016. Fitzgerald and his wife, Kelly, have three young sons: Will, Max, and Ben.