Damon Lessler
Camp Director
Damon Lessler is in his first season on Eddie Smith's Washington staff, serving as UW's Director of Player Development.
Lessler brings a robust resume to Montlake, making various stops around the country as an assistant coach or staff member with some of the top programs in collegiate baseball. In nearly fifteen years of coaching Lessler has coached or successfully recruited more than 70 players who have been drafted or signed by MLB affiliated teams.
Lessler spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons at fellow Big Ten member Ohio State as the Buckeyes’ director of operations/recruiting & player development. In his role, Lessler was responsible for a myriad of behind-the-scenes initiatives for OSU, including recruiting, scheduling, budget management, organizing all team travel and many other tasks under then head coach, Bill Mosiello before his return to TCU.
Before making the move to Columbus, Lessler was the hitting coach at Charleston Southern University for one season in 2022. During his lone season with the Buccaneers, CSU posted a .285 batting average and excelled in several offensive categories as a club and reached the Big South Championship Game finishing just one win shy of making an NCAA Regional appearance.
Previously, Lessler spent three and a half years at Cal, serving as the Golden Bears’ third base coach, infield, catching and base running coach, also working with the Cal offense. During his time with the Golden Bears, Lessler coached 28 MLB Draft picks, including two first rounders in Andrew Vaughn (Round 1, pick 3, White Sox), and Korey Lee (Round 1, pick 32, Astros). Outfielder Dylan Beavers was the 33rd overall pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 2022 being selected in the CB-A round.
In 2018 Vaughn would win college baseball’s most prestigious individual prize securing the Golden Spikes Award for the nation’s best amateur player. As a finalist for the award again the following year, Vaughn would come in as runner up in 2019, finishing second only to Oregon State’s Adley Rutschman, who would go on to be the number 1 overall pick in the MLB draft to the Baltimore Orioles. Vaughn made his MLB debut in 2021 with the Chicago White Sox, and Lee would make his MLB debut in 2022 with the Houston Astros.
Before Cal, Lessler had coaching stops at Cal Poly, San Jose State, Southern Miss, Chico State and Oakland University (Mich.). He also had a stop in the Evergreen State, serving as associate head coach with the Bellingham Bells of the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League during the summer of 2012.
During his playing career, Lessler played professionally in the Northern League, the American Association and the Frontier League, also playing in five different countries and helping to develop youth programs abroad. Lessler played infield collegiately at Mesa Community College, Sonoma State and Mississippi Valley State, before enrolling as a graduate student at Southern Miss.
Lessler holds several academic degrees including a master’s degree in sports administration from Southern Mississippi and a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Mississippi Valley State where he earned valedictorian honors from the university.