HICKORY, N.C. — Former Catawba Valley Community College baseball standout Marshall McDonald is returning to his roots.
The former All-Region 10 performance returns to the CVCC baseball program where he will serve as an assistant coach and also help with outfielders, hitters, weight room and recruiting.
"I couldn't be more excited to be coming back home to CVCC," McDonald said. "This place is more than special to me, and I couldn't be more excited to help head coach Paul Rozzelle and the CVCC baseball program continue to grow."
McDonald spent the past three seasons as an assistant baseball coach at Montreat College, helping the Cavaliers win 60 games, including 19 in conference play.
This will be McDonald's second stint as an assistant coach at CVCC. He previously was an assistant for the Red Hawks from 2014-17.
"I feel like I'm coming home," McDonald said. "The past four years at Montreat have helped me grow tremendously since I left CVCC in 2017. I feel more than ready to come back and help CVCC in its goal of winning a national championship.
During his four prior seasons coaching baseball at CVCC, McDonald spent three of them as hitting coach, leading the Red Hawks to new school records for home runs in each of those seasons.
A Red Springs, N.C. native, McDonald also coached Catawba Valley's first National Player of the Year in outfielder Chandler Jenkins during the 2017 season.
McDonald also has experience coaching on the summer collegiate scene, serving as an associate head coach for the Statesville Owls in 2015, head coach for the Lenoir Oilers in 2016 and assistant coach for the Lexington County Blowfish in 2017. As head coach of the Oilers, McDonald led the team to a 39-17 record and a Catawba Valley Collegiate League championship.
CVCC head baseball coach Paul Rozzelle is excited to have McDonald return to his staff.
"To say that we are excited about having Marshall back is an understatement," Rozzelle said. "We feel really good about our staff with both coach Lackey and coach Harvey and the work that those guys have done for our student athletes, but when you get the chance to add Marshall McDonald it's special. Marshall has a passion for Catawba Valley, and he gets to bring all of the knowledge and experience of moving on to another level and being at the Division I and NAIA levels back with him to CVCC. We're just very happy and excited to be able to add a guy with a ton of head coaching experience, especially at the summer ball level, back to our staff. He is going to pay big dividends in terms of the development of our student athletes here at CVCC. We are happy to have him home."