Donegal Fergus, the associate head coach of the UCSB baseball team, has been hired to take over the program at Loyola Marymount.
Fergus replaces Nate Choate, who left LMU after five years for the head coaching job at Washington State. Choate led the Lions to the West Coast Conference championship this past season.
At UCSB, Fergus helped turn the Gauchos into a potent offensive team. This past season, they belted a school-record 86 home runs and were one of 16 Division I teams in the country with more than 80 home runs and 60 stolen bases.
“I’m grateful for all of the contributions Donegal has made to our program,” said head coach Andrew Checketts. “I am excited for him and this great opportunity that he’s created for himself.”
Fergus served two stints at UCSB. He first joined Checketts’ staff after five seasons as an assistant at the University of Washington. In 2019, the Gauchos won the Big West title, their first conference title time since 1958, and had 11 players taken in the Major League Baseball Draft.
He left UCSB to become the minor league hitting coordinator for the Minnesota Twins. He worked in the Twins organization for two years before returning to the Gauchos’ dugout as a associate head coach in 2022. The team won another Big West title that year.
“Santa Barbara is a special place and I’ve turned down a lot of offers to stay there, this just goes to show how special LMU is,” Fergus said in a press release from LMU. ”We are going to have some big boys hitting homers over that big wall and I can’t wait to get started.”
LMU Athletic Director Craig Pintens said he appreciates Fergus’ “fantastic ability to develop meaningful relationships with student-athletes” and his “exceptional baseball intellect.
“His approach to the game and holistic view of the student-athlete experience will provide our baseball program with incredible leadership. We welcome Donegal and his family to the Bluff.”