4 Day Rice Baseball Youth Camp with College Coaches & Players

Parker Bangs was named the Owls’ pitching coach on June 30, 2022

He joined the Owls after four seasons at Davidson, where his staff led the conference and finished eighth nationally with a 3.86 ERA.  The Wildcats staff was led by senior Blake Hely, who earned A-10 Pitcher of the Year honors after posting a 9-1 record and 2.93 ERA while striking out 93 in 79.1 innings of action. He held conference hitters to a .170 batting average while surrendering a total of seven extra-base hits in 48 innings of work.  Redshirt freshman Ryan Feczko was named the conference’s rookie of the year after going 10-0 in 15 starts along with a 3.21 ERA.

He joined the staff at Davidson after three seasons at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. Bangs led the Blue Hose to program-bests since moving to Division I, including 433 strikeouts, 16 saves, and a 4.32 ERA in 2017. The squad also allowed its fewest runs (321) and earned runs (258) since 2013 as the team recorded a D1-era best 32 wins. Under his guidance, the Blue Hose named two pitchers to the All-Big South squads. In 2016, his staff helped spark Presbyterian’s first-ever appearance in the Big South title game.

Bangs played collegiately at South Carolina from 2008-10 and was a member of the Gamecock’s 2010 College World Series championship team.  In his three years with the Gamecocks, Bangs made 47 appearances on the mound, compiling a 7-5 record and striking out 94 in 74.2 innings. He also appeared in 81 games as a designated hitter and pinch hitter, posting a .301 career clip with 21 doubles, 10 home runs, and 60 RBI.

He was drafted by Kansas City in the 31st round of the 2010 MLB Draft, Bangs made 17 appearances over three minor league seasons before retiring after the 2012 season.

Bangs was the head coach of the Wilmington Sharks in the Coastal Plain League for two summers and spent three seasons as head coach of Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia, S.C. He also served as the pitching/hitting coach for the Columbia Blowfish of the CPL, and as the hitting coach at Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, S.C.

Justin Aspegren is in his first season as an assistant coach with the Owls.  He joined the program in the fall of 2023 as a Quality Control Assistant before moving into his current role in January of 2024.

Aspegren is entering his 17^th year of coaching at the collegiate level, the last eight at Appalachian State where he served as an assistant coach and pitching coach from 2016-23.

During his time with the Mountaineers, his hurlers posted five of the top 10 season strikeout totals in school history, including a school record 459 last year as App State topped 30 wins for the first time since 2013.  After moving to the Sun Belt Conference in the year before his arrival, the Mountaineers reached the SBS Tournament for the first time in 2019 and picked up their first tournament win in 2021.

Four App State players were drafted from 2017-2023: Matt Brill (12th, 2017), Colin Schmid (13th, 2018), Jack Hartman (4th, 2020), and Xander Hamilton (14th, 2023), as was catcher Chandler Seagle (30th, 2017) who made his MLB debut with San Diego in 2023.  A fifth hurler, Kaleb Bowman, was signed by the Brewers as a free agent after the 2022 season.

Aspegren began his coaching career at Santa Barbara College where he was the associate head coach and pitching coach from 2008-2015. The Vaqueros won three Western State Conference titles (2011, 2012, 2015), reaching the Southern California Regionals in 2008, and from 2011- 2015.  They advanced to the Super Regionals in 2011, 2014, and 2015 and to the Sectionals in 2014, and 2015.

Two of his pitchers were named Pacific Association Division All-American (Chris Joyce in 2011, and Kit Larson in 2014) with Joyce also being named the Southern California Pitcher of the Year.  Four others were named to the Southern California All-State team (Zak Edgington in 2010, D.J. Gunderson in 2011, Tyler Gilbert in 2013, and Sean Barry in 2015.

A total of 16 former players were selected in the MLB draft and five others signed affiliate free-agent contracts.  Gilbert made his MLB debut as a reliever in 2021 and later that season became the second player in major league history to throw a no-hitter in his first career start (August 14, 2021 for Arizona vs. San Diego).

Aspegren also coached for six years in the collegiate summer leagues and coached 31 players who reached the majors including former Owls Jon Duplantier and Glen Otto.  He led the Santa Barbara Foresters, featuring Duplantier and former Rice teammates Ford Stainback and John Williamson, to the NBC national championship in 2014.

He is a 2007 graduate of UC Santa Barbara where he was a pitcher for two seasons after beginning his career at SBCC were he was a two-time., all-conference selection as a utility player who both pitched and played first base.   He earned his Master of Science, in Exercise Science with a concentration in Sport Psychology from California University of Pennsylvania in 2013.

Lance Berkman, Rice’s career leader in nearly every offensive category and the first Owl player to be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, will assist his former teammate and roommate on road trips, Jose Cruz, as a volunteer assistant this season.

Berkman came to Rice as part of a stellar 1995 recruiting class that also featured future overall No. 1 draft pick Matt Anderson, and he roomed on road trips with Cruz, who would go on to win national Player of the Year honors that year before being selected in the first round of the draft that season by Toronto.

Two years later, Berkman matched Cruz by winning national Player of the Year honors by slugging 41 homers, driving in 134 runs while batting .431, and leading Rice to its first trip to the College World Series. His 41 homers rank third all-time in NCAA history, while his RBI total stands second.  He closed his career as an Owl with a .385 average, 67 home runs, 272 RBI, and 233 runs.

He was taken with the 16^th overall pick in the first round by the Houston Astros and made five of his six career All-Star games with them.  He was a key figure in the Astros’ first appearance in the World Series in 2005 and the following year slugged 45 homers while breaking Jeff Bagwell’s club record with 135 RBI.  His 45 homers allowed him to become the only player in history to top 40 home runs in a season at both the Division I and Major League level.

He hit .293 over 15 seasons (12 with the Astros, two with the Cardinals, and one each with the Rangers and Yankees), which included a World Series title with St. Louis in 2011.  He was a six-time All-Star selection and was the National League’s Comeback Player of the Year after hitting .301 with 31 homers and 94 RBI in the Cardinals’ run to the World Series title.  He hit 366 home runs and drove in 1,234 runs. His 366 homers are the third most by a switch hitter in major league history.

In addition to his induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, the Rice Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019, the Astros Hall of Fame in 2023, the Houston Sports Hall of Fame in 2024.

Berkman retired at the end of the 2013 season and began his coaching career in 2016 at Second Baptist High School, where he guided the Eagles to the TAPPS 4A state championship in 2016. He was an assistant coach at the University of St. Thomas in 2021, where the Celts went 17-16 in only the second season of the program’s existence, and then served as the head coach at HCU from 2022-24.

Berkman was born in Waco and was a standout at Canyon High School in New Braunfels, where he hit .539 with eight home runs as a senior. He and his wife, Cara, have four daughters.

Mikey Hoehner joined the Owls in the fall of 2024 as Director of Recruiting and Player Development after two seasons at McNeese State as a coach for the Cowboys.

Hoehner originally joined the McNeese program as a volunteer assistant in 2023 and was promoted to assistant coach in 2024, working primarily with the Cowboys’ pitchers and catchers and calling pitches during games as McNeese advanced to the Southland Conference Tournament championship game.

In 2023, he helped mentor Grant Rogers to a 12-1 record, 1.82 ERA, and 88 strikeouts in 2023 on his way to becoming the Cowboys’ first All-America honoree in 24 years. Rogers was taken in the 11^th round of the MLB Draft by Toronto.   McNeese ended 2023 ranked fifth nationally in shutouts (9) and 15^th in ERA  (4.28) and also threw the sixth no-hitter in school history.

A former catcher, he began his coaching career at Navarro College in 2022, where he worked with the Bulldogs’ hitters, catchers, and outfielders and served as the first base coach. He also was at the forefront of the strength and conditioning program for the team and managed scouting reports. Hoehner helped 21 Navarro Bulldogs sign to the next level, including 10 to Division 1 schools.

Hoehner made a total of 112 starts behind the plate at Texas A&M from 2018-21 and hit .269 (104-for-386) with 18 doubles, one triple, and six home runs while driving in 53 and scoring 69 runs. During his time as an Aggie, he made three starts against Rice, singling and scoring a run in his first game against the Owls in College Station, and finished his career 1×8.

Prior to Texas A&M, Hoehner played two seasons at Cisco College, where he earned NTJCAC All-Conference honors as a freshman and sophomore. He was a standout catcher at Langham Creek High School, earning All-District 17-6A honors as a senior and being selected to the All-Greater Houston team. He was also a three-year letterman and an all-district selection as a linebacker.

The Houston, Texas native majored in Supply Chain Management and graduated with his Master’s degree in Sport Management from Texas A&M in 2021.

Hoehner and his wife, Mary Grace, have been married for three years and have a six-month-old daughter named Murphie and a four-year-old dog named Moose.