The Boulder Collegians will have a new manager come next summer.
Acting quickly after this past season ended, the summer collegiate baseball club has hired local club coach and former professional coach Haas Pratt as its new skipper.
“I’m excited to be working at that level of baseball,” Pratt said. “It’s a little closer to where I left in Oakland. I’ve coached a lot of the kids who have been playing summer baseball and ended up playing on the Collegians and the team has an outstanding reputation in the community. I love baseball in this area and I am happy that I can continue to be a part of it.”
In his college career, Pratt played at the University of Miami (2000-2002) and the University of Arkansas (2002-2004). During his freshman season at Miami, the Hurricanes won the College World Series. At Arkansas, he was an SEC champion and reached the College World Series again in 2004, a year in which he was named the team’s hitter of the year.
Selected three separate times in the Major League Baseball draft, Pratt played four years in the Oakland Athletics organization and made it as high at the AAA level while playing multiple positions. After his playing career, Pratt served as a hitting coach in the Athletics’ minor league system for six years.
Pratt returned to Colorado in 2013 after his time with the Athletics and became the director of player development and manager for the Colorado Twins, a select summer club baseball program. He is also partner and director of baseball and softball operations at Extra Innings Longmont.
During his time with the Colorado Twins, Pratt coached numerous players, including Pate Katechis, Will Amen, Brian Meek and Tanner Kirkpatrick, who played for the Collegians this past summer. On top of Pratt’s familiarity with the team and several of its players, Collegians general manager Matt Jensen said he expects the team will benefit from Pratt’s connection as a Division-I college player and his experience with recruiting and playing in two College World Series.
“His resume speaks for itself,” Jensen said. “Not to take anything away from our previous coaches, but over the past three years we haven’t had this type of experience. I’ve had my eye on Haas for a long time. We knew for a while that Taylor Henry was taking a different job after this season and I called Haas the day after the season ended.”
Pratt played high school baseball at Pomona High School in Arvada and Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego.
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