UCSB baseball Head Coach Bob Brontsema announced on Wednesday that Jason Lefkowitz has joined his coaching staff, now giving the Gauchos three full-time coaches.
Lefkowitz, who played at Loyola Marymount, comes to UCSB from Brown University where he served as Assistant Coach and Camp Director since 2006. He joins Brontsema and Associate Head Coach Tom Myers as full-time coaches at UCSB.
John Kirkgard, who has served as the Gauchos’ assistant coach for the past 13 years, will now be the director of baseball operations.
“This is another step forward in our efforts to better serve our student-athletes on and off the field,” Brontsema said. “We’re very excited about this hire and the additional position (Director of Athletics) Mark Massari has helped us create. These moves will also greatly help us in our recruiting efforts.”
Aside from coaching at Brown, Lefkowitz served as the Head Coach over the summer for the Sag Harbor Whalers of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League and was an assistant coach in the Summer Collegiate Baseball League in 2006 and 2007. He also helped the recruiting efforts at Brown, which won its first Ivy League championship in 2007 and in his three seasons there, helped the team hit .326, the best in the conference.
“Jason is a real go-getter and he brings a lot of recruiting experience at the Division I level,” Brontsema said. “He understands the type of student we need to recruit and he should do an outstanding job.”
Kirkgard, who has worked as the pitching coach, outfield and hitting coach during his tenure, will now put his energy towards the operations side of the program.
“John has done an outstanding job for us on so many levels. This move better utilizes his time in an area that we very much needed” Brontsema said. “I’m excited about what these moves will do for the program.”
