The Cougar baseball team welcomed a new addition to the ball club in June when head coach Rayner Noble announced UH alumnus and four-year letterman (1988-91) Russell Stockton as assistant baseball coach.
Stockton’s return to the University from his days on the field as a starting player will be on the other side of the game. He is taking the position vacated by Kirk Blount, who resigned at the end of the 2008 season.
"(It feels) outstanding," Stockton said. "It’s great to be back. All the improvements that have taken place since I left are just incredible. It’s good to be wearing red again."
Stockton will work with the team’s offense, assist in defense and will also focus on recruiting. Stockton said he is pleased with the possibilities the University’s facilities and growth offers both new and returning players.
"I’m real excited, and I’m anxious for the year to get started and work with these guys," Stockton said. "I’m excited about this year’s team, and hopefully we can keep up with the successes we’ve had here in the past and hopefully move forward."
Coach Noble recognizes what UH’s new assistant coach brings to his baseball program and knows he has what it takes to make a difference.
"He has been a very successful head coach at his two previous stops," Noble said in a press release. "….He is adept at teaching every skill of the game. He has had to do that everywhere he has been because he hasn’t had the assistant coaches available to him at those places."
For the last 10 years, Stockton has been the head coach at Texas A’M-Kingsville, where he collected 275 wins to become the winningest coach in program history. In 2008, he led his team to a Lone Star Conference championship on their way to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Before his successes in Kingsville, Stockton was the head coach at Cedar Valley College in Lancaster, Texas. While there, his team won a Metro Athletics Conference Championship in 1997 and finished second in the NJCAA World Series. Stockton was named 1997 National Junior College Athletic Association Regional Coach of the Year.
Now he turns his sights to Houston, where he hopes to have similar success. Stockton’s roots run deep throughout the University and the game of baseball.
His father, Bragg Stockton, was head coach of the baseball team for many years and Russell was among the players on his roster. Stockton’s sisters also attended UH, as did his wife, a three-time All-American diver at UH.
Stockton earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in kinesiology from UH and now intends to do more for his alma mater.
"Anytime you take a new position, you come in with high expectations," Stockton said. "Coach Garza does a great job here. I’m looking forward to working with him on our hitters and see if we can move the numbers forward a bit."
The opportunity to coach his team and colors is the thing he looks forward to the most.
"It’s home. It’s being a Cougar," he said.
