Nike Baseball Camp Bothell

Joe McDonald enters his seventh season as the head coach of Arizona Christian baseball with a record of 190-121 in his first six seasons. This will be his 30th season of coaching overall.

The Firestorm baseball program is fresh off of their first ever appearance in the 2024 NAIA World Series with a top 5 finish in the country. Coach McDonald was named an ABCA Regional Coach of the Year! This was the 2nd time under Coach McDonald ACU reached the NAIA National Tournament, 2019 & 2024.

Records for ACU Baseball were changed- in some cases shattered- during the 2024 season. The most impressive records changed were home runs now at 99 (up 41 from the previous mark) and strikeouts at 623 (139 more than the old top mark). Other records broken include slugging and on base percentage, runs scored, RBI, hits, doubles, total bases, walks, hit by pitch, innings pitched, wins, shutouts, and strikeouts looking.

Prior to ACU, McDonald was the only head coach at Boulder Creek HS in Anthem after he started the team in 2005 (began playing varsity in 2006). Under his guidance, the Jaguars reached the Arizona state playoffs eight times which includes finishing in the top five three times.

In 2010, Boulder Creek set the state of Arizona record with 485 team hits in a season. After BCHS won the regional championship and ended with a 33-6 record in 2011, Coach McDonald was awarded the AIA State, City of Phoenix, and Northwest Regional Coach of the Year honors. One year later, the BCHS diamond was named the ABCA National Field of the Year.

On the strength of his 249 wins at BCHS, Coach McDonald saw 45 players sign to play college baseball including Coby Boulware- a 2018 Freshman All-American at TCU. Two of McDonald’s players have signed professional contracts- Alex Real with the Minnesota Twins and West Tunnell with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Success on the field was started by success in the classroom as the Jaguars posted a cumulative GPA of 3.3 in the 12 years under McDonald.

Along with coaching, Coach McDonald was the Physical Education Department Chair at Boulder Creek High School. In addition, he was named the Assistant Athletic Director of the Deer Valley Unified School District where one of his many accomplishments was starting the Victory with Honor program. Prior to moving to Arizona, Coach McDonald served as the Head Assistant Baseball Coach at Western Oregon University from 1998-2000. He also coached a summer each in the Arizona Junior College Summer League and Northwest Collegiate Baseball League. As a player, McDonald played two seasons at Western Oregon University and one season at Linfield College. The outfielder was an All-State selection and two time All-Intermountain Conference selection at Bend High School. Academically, McDonald earned a physical education degree with a minor in health from Western Oregon University in 1998. Four years later, he added a master’s degree in education from Western Oregon University. Coach McDonald and his wife, Pam, have three daughters- Jaysa, Paislee, and Liliana- and two sons- Montgomery and Kayden. The McDonalds are volunteers with the Christian Family Care Adoption Agency.

In his first season as pitching coach, Coach Howie's staff shattered the school record for strikeouts in a season with 770, posted a 3.32 team ERA and helped guide the Vaqueros to their 4th NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP in school history with a 59-13 record. Central led the NJCAA World Series in ERA and 3 of his pitchers earned All ACCAC honors and 2 were named to the JUCO World Series All Tournament Team. Coach Howie's staff also had 2 pitchers drafted in the MLB Draft.

I year two, the Vaquero pitching staff led the country in both ERA (2.30) and strikeouts (703). The ERA and strikeouts both rank second All-time in the history of the program. Matt Wilkinson and Patrick Steitz received all ACCAC while Wilkinson also earned conference Pitcher of the Year.

Howie had 4 seasons as the Head Baseball Coach at Everett Community College where he has compiled a record of 99-44 overall, winning conference titles 2 out of 3 chances. Most of that work
was done in his first two and 2021 seasons as only 11 games were played in 2020. JoJo took over the reins in the 2017-2018 season after long time coach Levi Lacey stepped down and accepted the four corners area scout position with the Texas Rangers. Howie served two
seasons (2016, 2017) as an assistant coach, in which the Trojans claimed North Region Titles, and also advanced to the NWAC Championship game each year. The first year that Howie was the Head
coach they made the final tournament finishing 6th overall. In 2019 the Trojan’s were recognized by Perfect Game as a Top 25 Junior College program in the country at the conclusion of that season
going 39-11 losing in the championship. In his last season JoJo led 2021 Everett team to a 24–8 record winning the North Region Championship, and due to COVID that was as far as the season
could go. In the four complete seasons that JoJo has been in a coaching role with the program, there have been 25 players selected to the All North Region team, 9 All NWAC players, 3 Gold Glovers, 3 ABCA All Americans, 1 North Region Most Valuable Player, and in 2019 and 2021 JoJo Howie was named the North Region Coach of the Year. Howie also spent the summer of 2016 working for the Seattle Mariners Short Season Affiliate Everett Aqua Sox, as an assistant coach and
first base coach.

Before coaching, Howie played two seasons in Division I Athletic 10 Conference for Virginia Commonwealth University where he had 30 career starts as a pitcher, pitched 6 complete games, with 154 strike outs and a 14-9 record. In 2015 Howie was the ace on the most successful team in program history, A10 Champions, Dallas Baptist Regional Champions, and eventually losing to Miami
in the super regionals. For individual accolades he received the Athletic Departments “Team First” award for leadership and inspiration, also all A10 tournament team, 2015 IP 105 with 2.74 ERA.

Howie played high school for Bellevue Christian High School winning MVP of his league in 2011. His college career started at Everett CC where he played in 2012 and 2013. The Trojans won a combined
71 games in those two seasons winning back to back North Region Title’s, and finishing 3rd in 2012 before ultimately winning the programs first NWAC Title since 1966 in his sophomore season. JoJo
pitched in game 3 of the championship tournament where he went 7.2 innings, striking out 4 and giving up 0 runs en-route to a 2-0 win vs Yakima Valley. JoJo is married to wife Brie, with two kids, 5-year-old daughter Violet, and new born son Houston.