New Coaches at Carroll and Northland Look to Turn Programs Around

The Northland College Lumberjacks and Carroll University Pioneers both named new head coaches this off-season.

Stein Rear will lead the Lumberjacks and Derek Hassell will take the reigns at Carroll. Both men are collegiate head coaches for the first time, but they have compiled strong resumes.

Most recently Rear was assistant coach for the Whitewater Warhawks from 2006-2010. In his time there, Whitewater won four WIAC Conference Championships and advanced to a D3 World Series. Rear also gained experience as head coach of the New Glarus varsity program for three seasons.

The coach will have his work cut out for him, trying to improve the Northland baseball program which finished 12-27 a year ago and 13-20 in 2009. Adding to the difficulty for Rear, is the fact that he wasn't officially named to the position until October 2010, meaning he will go into this season without having a recruiting class of his own to battle with.

Rear has been successful at each stop of his playing and coaching careers and I hope he is able to make Northland a force in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference.

Carroll took a page out of the book of Michigan football fans by naming a "Carroll Man" to lead their program. Derek Hassell played for four seasons between 1998-2001. In those years, Hassell led the team to records above .500 twice, which may not seem like a big deal until you realize that Carroll has only posted three winning records in it's history. Hassell now looks to be a part of more success with the Pioneers.

According to the Carroll website, "Hassell has worked on coaching staffs at Pomona-Pitzer College, Gardner-Webb University, Charleston Southern University, Texas Christian University and most recently, at Furman University. Additionally, in 2006, he led the Solingen Alligators to the team's first-ever National Championship in Germany's top baseball league."

It would appear that Carroll has gotten themselves a great catch in the hopes of joining the powers atop the Midwest Conference. With strong young talent from the 2010 season, the Pioneers could be a team to look out for in the coming years.

Good luck to both men as they start their coaching careers off in the 2011 season.

Photos courtesy of Northland College and Carroll University athletic dept.