Meet the Ripken Coaching Staff
Ripken Baseball camps have a highly qualified coaching staff consisting of former professional players, professional scouts, college coaches, college players, and high school coaches. Each coach is well-trained in 'The Ripken Way' of instructing youth baseball players and constantly monitored to ensure that they are upholding the standards that have been established by Ripken Baseball.
Many of the coaches have been instructing in Ripken Baseball programs for several years and have learned directly from the core staff of Ripken Baseball instructors, including Bill and Cal Ripken themselves.
Cal Ripken Jr.
Lead Instructor-Ripken Experience Camp
Cal Ripken is baseball's all-time Iron Man. He retired from baseball in October, 2001 after 21 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. His name appears in the record books repeatedly, most notably as one of only seven players in history to achieve 400 home runs and 3,000 hits.
In 1995, Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played (2,130) and voluntarily ended his streak in 1998 after playing 2,632 consecutive games. Although he finished his career at third base, this future Hall of Famer is still best known for redefining the position of shortstop.
- American League Rookie of the Year ('82)
- Two-time American League Most Valuable Player ('83, '91)
- Two-time MD Gold Glove recipient ('91, '92)
- Two-time All-Star MVP ('91, '01)
In 2001, Cal was honored when fans named his 2,131st consecutive game Major League Baseball's "Most Memorable Moment" in history through a program run by MLB.
Bill Ripken
Lead Instructor-Ripken Experience Camp
Bill Ripken, a 12-year major league veteran, began his career with the Baltimore Orioles in 1987, under the direction of his father, Cal Ripken, Sr., and alongside brother Cal Ripken, Jr. This was the first and remains the only time in Major League Baseball history that a father simultaneously managed two of his sons.
After five and a half seasons with the Orioles, Ripken, who would later return to Baltimore for a year, played for Texas, Cleveland and Detroit. In 1988, he was second among American League second baseman in double plays turned (100). At the plate, Ripken led the Orioles in hitting with a .291 average and 28 doubles in 1990.
A second baseman by trade, his fielding percentage was .9927 in 1992, the best of any major league second baseman that season. He concluded his career with a .247 lifetime batting average.
John Habyan
Pitching Coach-Ripken Experience Camp
John broke into the big leagues with the Baltimore Orioles in 1985 after coming up through the organization playing along side Billy Ripken.
He went on to pitch for the following teams during a successful 11-year major league career:
- New York Yankees
- Kansas City Royals
- St. Louis Cardinals
- California Angels
- Colorado Rockies
In those 11 seasons he compiled an impressive 3.85 ERA and posted a 26-24 record with 12 saves.
John heads up all the pitching instruction during the Experience Camp.
Mark Parent
Hitting & Catching Coach-Ripken Experience Camp
Over the course of his impressive 13-year major league career, Mark caught for several big league clubs:
- Orioles
- Philadelphia Phillies
- San Diego Padres
- Detroit Tigers
- Pittsburg Pirates
- Texas Rangers
In 1995 he hit a career-high 18 runs in 81 games. His career .990 fielding percentage is the same as that of Ivan Rodriguez and better than that of Hall of Famer Johnny Bench (.987), considered to be two of the greatest catchers of all time. Most recently, Mark managed the Lancaster JetHawks, a class A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.
Ken Gerhart
Outfield & Hitting Coach-Ripken Experience Camp
Ken was one of the Orioles' most heralded minor league prospects of the 1980s after being selected in the fifth round of the 1982 amateur draft out of Middle Tennessee State University.
He came up through the Baltimore organization at the same time as Bill Ripken and John Habyan, landing a spot on the big league roster in 1986. Ken remained with the Orioles until 1988 before being traded to the San Francisco Giants.
A solid defensive outfielder who was blessed with power and tremendous speed, he belted 14 home runs while stealing nine bases in just 92 games for the Orioles in 1987.
Ken recently was inducted into the MTSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
Tim Gebhart
Operations Coordinator
Tim Gebhart, a Mobridge, South Dakota native, joined the Ripken staff in the fall of 2005. As Operations Coordinator for the Camps and Clinics Division, he is involved with all facets of the camp, tournament and specialty programming at the Ripken Academy. Before joining the Ripken team, Tim spent the past two summers as the Director of Baseball Operations and Athletics at Camp All-Star in Kents Hill, Maine where he was in charge of running the entire baseball program and overseeing 25 other sports. Tim is a recent graduate from the University of Hawaii at Hilo with a degree in Health and Physical Education. At Hilo he was part of the university's operations staff and also became the baseball announcer for the baseball program. Prior to his move to Hawaii, he spent his collegiate playing days at the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. As a second baseman, he helped lead the Cougars to a conference championship during his freshman year.
Matt Backert
Operations Coordinator
Matt Backert currently serves as an operations coordinator for the Camps & Clinics Division of Ripken Baseball. Matt helped deliver a once in a lifetime experience to all Ripken campers during the summer of 2005 as an intern and now has joined Ripken Baseball as a full time staff member. Matt is a native of North East, Maryland and graduated from Neumann College in Aston, Pennsylvania where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Sport Management with a minor in Business Administration. Prior to joining Ripken Baseball Matt played centerfield and led off for Neumann College and was an intercollegiate soccer player
Scott Lowe
Lead Instructor-Rookie Program
Scott Lowe has been with Ripken Baseball since September 1999. He came to the organization after eight years working in college sports publicity. After serving as the General Manager of the Camps and Clinics Division for five years Scott was placed in charge of Amateur Baseball Development. In that role he is responsible for developing staff training programs as well as creating and coordinating distribution of Ripken Baseball instructional products such as the recently released DVD Series covering pitching, hitting and defense. In addition, Scott writes, designs and distributes the Coach's Clipboard e-newsletter and maintains that portion of the Ripken Baseball website. He also is responsible for developing all of Ripken Baseball's coaching education programs.
Scott has 15 years of baseball coaching experience at the Babe Ruth, high school and American Legion levels - as well as at various camps around the mid-Atlantic region. For the past two years he has served as head coach at the Park School of Baltimore. There he has led a team that had not made the MIAA B Conference playoffs since 1997 to two consecutive postseason appearances and a two-year record of 29-11.
A 1991 summa cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland College of Journalism, Scott is a native of Bowie, MD. He worked for two years as an athletic communications assistant at Princeton University and served for two years as the assistant director of sports information, which included one year as the athletics marketing and promotions coordinator, at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He concluded his career in sports publicity at Loyola College in Maryland as both the assistant and head sports information director. Scott lives in Owings Mills, MD, with his wife (Robin) and two children (Devin, 6, and Sydney, 4).
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