Baseball Southern Conference

Davidson's Cooke To Coach Team USA

TUCSON, Arizona - Pending final approval from the United States Olympic Committee, USA Baseball announced today that Dick Cooke of Davidson College will serve as an assistant coach for the 2003 USA Baseball National Team that will represent the United States at the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, August 1-15. Ray Tanner of the University of South Carolina will serve as the head coach for the team, while Mark Scalf of UNC Wilmington and Mike Weathers of Long Beach State University will serve as assistant coaches for the team as well.

This will be Cooke's third stint with USA Baseball, after having served as an auxiliary coach for both the 1999 Pan Am Team and the 2000 gold-medal-winning USA Baseball Olympic Team. Cooke served under Buddy Bell in 1999 and under Tommy Lasorda in 2000 at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Cooke, the all-time winningest baseball coach at Davidson with 234 victories, is entering his 13th season at the helm of the baseball squad. The 1978 graduate of the University of Richmond spent three years in the Boston Red Sox organization before moving into collegiate coaching at his alma mater in 1984. In 1990, he resurrected the baseball program at Belmont Abbey before joining the Davidson staff.

Tanner and his assistants will guide Team USA through their first summer of play at their new headquarters in the Triangle. The 2003 USA Baseball National Team will play their first game at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Wednesday evening, July 2, against Japan at 7:00 p.m.

This will be Tanner's fifth overall tour of duty with USA Baseball, but his first as a head coach. He served with Cooke as an auxiliary coach for the 2000 USA Baseball Olympic Team.

This will be the first career USA Baseball coaching experience for both Scalf and Weathers. Chris Gebeck of Duluth, Minnesota will return as the USA Baseball National Team Trainer for the fourth consecutive summer.

In June, USA Baseball will invite 36 of the nation's top freshman and sophomore collegiate players to the USA Baseball National Team Trials. The 2003 USA Baseball National Team will play approximately 25 games this summer. Team USA will open their tour with a five-game series against the Japanese Collegiate All-Stars - the 32nd annual meeting of the two countries, and then play approximately 10 additional games during July in various states before traveling to the Pan Am Games.

USA Baseball is the National Governing Body of amateur baseball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The organization selects and trains the USA Baseball Olympic Team, the USA Baseball National Team (Collegiate), the USA Baseball Junior National Team (18-under), and the USA Baseball Youth National Team (16-under) which participate in various international competitions each year.