Walton Adds Brian Kraft to Baseball Staff

[Bogus Smith]

Sounds like we got someone to help us with our recruiting in the State of Florida....

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Walton Adds Brian Kraft to Baseball Staff

TULSA--Oral Roberts University baseball head coach Rob Walton has announced the addition of Brian Kraft as an assistant coach on Friday.

Kraft spent the last two seasons as an assistant at Polk Community College in Winter Haven, Fla. Before arriving at Polk, he spent two years as an assistant at Oklahoma City University. At Oklahoma City, Kraft helped guide the Stars to a NAIA National Championship in 2005 and finished as the national runner-up in 2004.

The Gainesville, Fla. native also served stints with the Covington Lumberjacks of the Valley Baseball League in the summer of 2004 and 2005. As the head coach in 2005, Kraft coached former Golden Eagles’ Tim Torres, Taylor McIntyre and Matt Hancock. Kraft served as an assistant in 2004.

“Brian is a great addition to our team and staff,” said Walton. “He has a lot of experience coaching at the junior college level and had a great collegiate career at Florida State and Oklahoma State.

“Being a position player, Brian will use his experience to come in and coach our outfielders while also serving as the first base coach. He is a young coach that will bring enthusiasm and energy to our program.”

Kraft was a three-year letterwinner at Oklahoma State from 2001-03 and a letterwinner as a freshman at national power Florida State in 2000. A career .304 hitter at OSU, Kraft also excelled in the classroom, earning Academic All-Big 12 honors in 2003.

At ORU, Kraft will coach the ORU outfielder’s in addition to assisting with on-campus recruitment. Kraft will also serve as the first base coach.

Kraft earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from Oklahoma State in 2003 and is currently working on his master’s in Sports Management at the United States Sports Academy.

Brian was married on Jan. 15, 2006 to the former Mandy Ferguson and the couple currently resides in Tulsa.