Eric Parker Named OSU Assistant Baseball Coach – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
James Madison University grad and former member of the Boston Red Sox organization has been a volunteer assistant for the Buckeyes the last three years.
COLUMBUS, Ohio Eric Parker, who has spent the last three seasons as a volunteer assistant coach with the Ohio State baseball program, has been elevated to a fulltime assistant coaching position, head coach Bob Todd announced today.
“Eric has worked extremely hard with our pitchers and outfielders during the last three seasons,” Todd said. “He has proven to be a excellent teacher to our student-athletes, and I am pleased that he will become a fulltime member of our staff.”
Ohio State won its eighth Big Ten Conference tournament title this past season and advanced to compete in the NCAA baseball championships for the 18th time in school history.
Parker, a 1997 graduate of James Madison University with a degree in kinesiology, has a considerable amount of baseball coaching experience already. In addition to his three seasons coaching with the Buckeyes, Parker:
Spent the 2005 summer as pitching coach for the Luray Wranglers of the Valley League in Virginia;
Coached the freshman team at Upper Arlington High School in Columbus, Ohio for two seasons 2003 and 2004; and
Served as head coach of the Columbus Sharks Baseball Club, a select traveling team for 17 and 18-year olds from Columbus, during the summer of 2004.
Parker, a pitcher, played collegiate baseball at both the University of Virginia and JMU. He played his freshman and sophomore seasons (1993 and 1994) at Virginia before transferring to JMU, where he played during the 1996 and 1997 seasons.
While in college, Parker played three summers in the Shenandoah Valley Collegiate Baseball League, spending the 1993 and 1996 seasons with the Harrisonburg Turks and the 1994 season with the Staunton Braves. He was a league all-star in 1994 and 1996. In 1995, Parker played for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the renowned Cape Cod Collegiate Baseball League and was an all-star after leading the league with nine saves.
Parker was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Boston Red Sox organization and played the 1997 season with the Lowell Spinners Baseball Club in Lowell, Mass. He finished 3-0 with one save and a 3.24 ERA with 41 strikeouts in 23 innings for Lowell, a member of the New York-Penn League.
Parker and his wife, Leann, an associate athletics communications director at Ohio State, live in Lewis Center, Ohio. The couple has one son, Devin Edgar, who was born Oct. 28, 2006.
