Baseball athletic trainer Scott Stansbury is going to work with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team this summer.

Baseball Support Staff To Work With USA Baseball This Summer

May 21, 2014

Collegiate National Team

15U National Team

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Two members of the University of Notre Dame baseball team’s support staff are working with USA Baseball this summer as athletic trainer Scott Stansbury (Collegiate National Team) and assistant media relations director Russell Dorn (15U National Team) will travel with their respective squads to international competitions.

After working with the 14U and 17U National Team Development Program last summer in Cary, N.C., Stansbury will be the head athletic trainer for the Collegiate National Team this summer as they head to the Netherlands for the Honkbal Baseball Week tournament in mid-July. Prior to the tournament in the Netherlands, they will compete in Friendship Series events against Chinese Taipei and Japan in the United States, and then bookend their trip with an additional five-game Friendship Series versus Cuba in Havana.

With the Collegiate National Team, Stansbury will get to work with some of the best freshmen and sophomore college players in the country and with an elite coaching staff that includes Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn (manager), Texas A&M head coach Rob Childress (assistant), New Mexico head coach Ray Birmingham (assistant) and Pepperdine head coach Steve Rodriguez (assistant). Rodriguez and Stansbury have worked together before as each were part of the development program last summer.

“I’m excited to work with the coaching staff and team that USA Baseball has put together,” said Stansbury. “I’m interested to see how the coaches and players approach the international aspect of the game and how they will come together to compete and represent the United States as a group. I want to thank the sports medicine department, the Notre Dame baseball staff and USA Baseball for allowing me this opportunity. It’s a tremendous honor and privilege to be able to represent our country on an international stage.”

Stansbury is just the latest from the department to work with Team USA in addition associate athletic trainer and physical therapist Mandy Merritt (men’s lacrosse) and assistant athletic trainer Anne Marquez (women’s basketball).

Dorn, who just completed his first year as the media relations contact for the Irish baseball team, will head to Cary, N.C., from July 21-29 for the 15U team trials and training before heading with the 15U National Team to La Paz, Mexico from August 1 – August 10 for the WBSC “AA” / 15U World Cup.

His responsibilities as the press officer for the 15U National Team will be similar to the ones he has with the Notre Dame baseball team and will include keeping stats at games, writing press releases and game recaps, managing social media accounts and handling interview requests in addition to other duties.

“Working with the 15U National Team will be an awesome experience for me both professionally and personally,” said Dorn. “Getting to hone my media relations skills while helping to provide positive publicity for USA Baseball is definitely a thrill and can only help me as I continue to do the same for the University of Notre Dame. I would like to thank my bosses, John Heisler and Bernie Cafarelli, for allowing me to be away from the Notre Dame media relations office for part of the summer and the USA Baseball staff for giving me this opportunity.”

Assistant media relations director Russell Dorn is working with the 15U National Team this summer.

Dorn will work with a well-known group of high school coaches headed up by Parkview High School (Lilburn, Ga.) head coach Chan Brown. Assistants Javy Rodriguez (head coach at Gulliver Preparatory in Miami), Jason Washburn (head coach at College Park High School in The Woodlands, Texas) and Mark Shives (Clear Spring High School in Clear Spring, Maryland) round out the staff.

“I think it’s great for members of our staff to be thought highly enough of to be able to be part of our national organization,” said head coach Mik Aoki. “I think it’s excellent notoriety for them and for our program.”

Notre Dame and USA Baseball have a rich history as 12 former players have participated on a USA National Team beginning with outfielder Shaun Fitzmaurice in 1964 (Olympic Team) and continuing with rising sophomore second baseman Cavan Biggio in 2013 (18U National Team). Former Irish All-American and current Monogram Club Executive Director Brant Ust twice played for the National Team, once as a sophomore in 1998 and again in 2005. Other heralded Irish Team USA members include major leaguers Aaron Heilman, Jeff Manship and Brad Lidge.

For more information on Notre Dame baseball, follow the team on Facebook (/NDBaseball) and Twitter (@NDBaseball).

–ND–