The Kelowna Falcons have hired a new head coach in Mt. Hood Community College’s Bryan Donohue.

Donohue is entering season number nine with the Mt Hood Saints, where he has compiled a record of 243-127 and is a 6-time Coach of the Year in the NWAC Southern Region.

Prior to coaching at Mt Hood, Donohue played for the Saints for two seasons before transferring to George Fox University. Donohue holds the all-time career batting average record at George Fox, where he graduated with honors with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business with a marketing concentration.

Donohue has WCL experience as well, playing for the Corvallis Knights (then Aloha Knights of Gresham) in 2006. He has won three league championships in the Northwest Collegiate Baseball League in Portland Oregon as well.

“I’ve played in the league, and I’ve been wanting to get into the league for quite some time,” said Donohue in a phone interview, “I’m excited, and with a lot of connections from sending our players there and former players that have been involved in the WCL as well, I’m looking forward to building on the 2015 momentum”

It was Billy Clontz that lead the Falcons to the West Coast League Championship series in 2015, where they fell in 2 games to the Bend Elks, who was an integral part in finding the Falcons new coach.

“Billy and I go way back and I have a tremendous amount of trust in him. He’s given me a feel on the right way to go about putting together the 2016 team, and I think understanding his experience with WCL recruiting has really helped,” said Donohue.

“We would like to thank Billy Clontz and his staff for all their hard work over the last two seasons. Billy was instrumental in getting the Falcons to the league championship series,” said Falcons GM Mark Nonis.

Clontz accepted a full-time position with Ohlone College in San Jose, played with Donohue during his collegiate days at Mt. Hood CC. 2014/2015 Falcons pitching coach Dylan Jones, and 2015 hitting coach Nate Shaver also played for the Saints.

The Falcons open up the 2016 WCL Season on June 3rd when they host the Bellingham Bells.

ABOUT THE WEST COAST LEAGUE

The West Coast League is the premier summer collegiate baseball league west of the Mississippi. The twelve-year-old, eleven-team, professionally-operated wood-bat league located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest features pro prospects from major conferences across the nation and an unparalleled history out west of great fan and player experiences – not to mention the best summer weather in North America. In 2015, 59 players with WCL experience were selected in the MLB June draft, and over 200 WCL alums appeared in affiliated professional baseball including 25 in the big leagues such as MLB home run leader Chris Davis (Baltimore), NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Matt Duffy (San Francisco) and rising star pitchers Matt Andriese (Tampa Bay) and James Paxton (Seattle). Overall member attendance exceeded 400,000 last season. The 2016 54-game campaign opens Friday, June 3.