Completed Event: Baseball versus San Diego State on March 28, 2026 , Loss , 11, to, 12
Baseball
vs San Diego State
L 11-12
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Andy Stankiewicz
Stankiewicz Prepares for USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Summer Experience
6/21/2012 12:38:00 PM | Baseball
Stankiewicz was named an assistant coach for the 2012 squad that will travel internationally to Cuba and Holland.
Grand Canyon University head baseball coach Andy Stankiewicz is preparing to embark on a summer journey as part of the 2012 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team coaching staff. He joins Dave Serrano from Tennessee, Jason Gill from Loyola Marymount and George Horton from Oregon. His thoughts about being selected to participate as a coach for the USA Baseball Collegiate Team can be found by clicking here.
“Coach Serrano has had a great amount of success in his coaching career and he is known as a great pitching coach,” said Stankiewicz. “He is our very own pitching coach, Nathan Choate’s mentor, which is one of the reasons I feel we have done well. Then you have Coach Horton who will be a hall of fame coach when it is all said and done and his career is over in college baseball. His resume is incredible. What he did at Oregon in four or five years is amazing, most recently taking them to within one game of the College World Series this year. He will be leading the offense, so I will have a chance to watch him work. And Jason Gill, the head coach at Loyola Marymount, who has worked under Horton as well. He has helped build that LMU program into a strong contender every year. I have only been a head coach for one year and I have this great chance to rub shoulders with these guys that have been doing it for a long time in the college game. I am looking forward to watching them work and talking different offensive philosophies and theories and pitching and all that with them.”
The coaches have spent many months in preparation for this summer, from scheduling to player personnel. The roster will be finalized at the end of the month, before the team hops on the plane for their matches against Cuba.
“It has been a pretty long process, which I didn’t know, so it’s a great experience for me to see how this all evolves as you try to build a team with some of the best collegiate athletes,” said Stankiewicz. “The director of USA Baseball, Eric Campbell, has been doing this for a long time and is very good at it. He has a pulse on everybody, where they played summer ball, how they did, what program they play for and their history. It is amazing the information that he has to work with. As a staff, we all sat down and started bouncing names off one another. It is amazing, considering how small of a roster it is at 22 men. You have to do your research. Coach Serrano, the staff and certainly Eric Campbell have a pretty good group of players lined up to meet us this weekend.”
The team will meet in Raleigh, North Carolina on Sunday and compete in numerous scrimmages before embarking on their overseas adventure. The squad will begin several matchups against the Cuban National Team in Cuba on July 5.
“Thinking about going to Cuba is exciting in itself,” Stankiewicz said. “I played and coached down in Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican, but I have never been to Cuba. They say it is every bit as fanatical down there as anywhere else; maybe even more so because baseball is the national pastime. We will play against their national team, which is basically their best squad. It will be a great challenge for some of these young college-aged men to go compete against professional players. It will be fun. It will be exciting to play in a big arena in front of big crowds. It will get our hearts jumping.”
Following their five contests against Cuba, the squad will travel to Amsterdam to compete in the 26th Haarlem Baseball Week from July 14-22, where their pool includes Japan, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipai (Taiwan) and The Netherlands.
“After Cuba, we will go to Amsterdam and play in a world tournament there where we will see Japan, Cuba , Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipai and the Netherlands,” Stankiewicz added. “Those are all great teams. It is pretty stiff competition and it will be a challenge to win that tournament. If the team comes together the way that we as the coaching staff believe it will, we think we will be better at the end of the season versus the beginning of the tour. It should be fun.”
Being a part of this team and travelling around the world for nearly a month will keep Stankiewicz busy until the end of July. But with that comes a great opportunity for Grand Canyon University.
“Hopefully people will see that GCU is a legitimate player in college baseball and always has been,” explained Stankiewicz. “When a coach gets a chance to be a part of a USA baseball team, players will recognize that the program is carrying weight. I can begin to build a relationship with USA Baseball to where they can call me and I won’t be afraid to say we have a guy right here at Grand Canyon. That’s one of our goals, for players to come here and get that opportunity one day. I think the ball is rolling in the right direction. I am fortunate enough to be on this coaching staff and I think that will begin to legitimize our program as one that people will look at and think ‘that’s a great place to go.’”
Stankiewicz will check in weekly throughout his journey with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team and fans can follow his adventures by visiting www.gculopes.com.
“I will try to keep it kind of loose and keep it fun. I want our players and families to see this through my experience and get a feel for Cuba, Holland, USA Baseball and the players that I will be working with,” said Stankiewicz. “I want them to experience it from a distance. I am fortunate enough to get to do it firsthand and I just want everybody to experience it with me.”
More information about the USA Baseball organization can be found by clicking here.
“Coach Serrano has had a great amount of success in his coaching career and he is known as a great pitching coach,” said Stankiewicz. “He is our very own pitching coach, Nathan Choate’s mentor, which is one of the reasons I feel we have done well. Then you have Coach Horton who will be a hall of fame coach when it is all said and done and his career is over in college baseball. His resume is incredible. What he did at Oregon in four or five years is amazing, most recently taking them to within one game of the College World Series this year. He will be leading the offense, so I will have a chance to watch him work. And Jason Gill, the head coach at Loyola Marymount, who has worked under Horton as well. He has helped build that LMU program into a strong contender every year. I have only been a head coach for one year and I have this great chance to rub shoulders with these guys that have been doing it for a long time in the college game. I am looking forward to watching them work and talking different offensive philosophies and theories and pitching and all that with them.”
The coaches have spent many months in preparation for this summer, from scheduling to player personnel. The roster will be finalized at the end of the month, before the team hops on the plane for their matches against Cuba.
“It has been a pretty long process, which I didn’t know, so it’s a great experience for me to see how this all evolves as you try to build a team with some of the best collegiate athletes,” said Stankiewicz. “The director of USA Baseball, Eric Campbell, has been doing this for a long time and is very good at it. He has a pulse on everybody, where they played summer ball, how they did, what program they play for and their history. It is amazing the information that he has to work with. As a staff, we all sat down and started bouncing names off one another. It is amazing, considering how small of a roster it is at 22 men. You have to do your research. Coach Serrano, the staff and certainly Eric Campbell have a pretty good group of players lined up to meet us this weekend.”
The team will meet in Raleigh, North Carolina on Sunday and compete in numerous scrimmages before embarking on their overseas adventure. The squad will begin several matchups against the Cuban National Team in Cuba on July 5.
“Thinking about going to Cuba is exciting in itself,” Stankiewicz said. “I played and coached down in Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican, but I have never been to Cuba. They say it is every bit as fanatical down there as anywhere else; maybe even more so because baseball is the national pastime. We will play against their national team, which is basically their best squad. It will be a great challenge for some of these young college-aged men to go compete against professional players. It will be fun. It will be exciting to play in a big arena in front of big crowds. It will get our hearts jumping.”
Following their five contests against Cuba, the squad will travel to Amsterdam to compete in the 26th Haarlem Baseball Week from July 14-22, where their pool includes Japan, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipai (Taiwan) and The Netherlands.
“After Cuba, we will go to Amsterdam and play in a world tournament there where we will see Japan, Cuba , Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipai and the Netherlands,” Stankiewicz added. “Those are all great teams. It is pretty stiff competition and it will be a challenge to win that tournament. If the team comes together the way that we as the coaching staff believe it will, we think we will be better at the end of the season versus the beginning of the tour. It should be fun.”
Being a part of this team and travelling around the world for nearly a month will keep Stankiewicz busy until the end of July. But with that comes a great opportunity for Grand Canyon University.
“Hopefully people will see that GCU is a legitimate player in college baseball and always has been,” explained Stankiewicz. “When a coach gets a chance to be a part of a USA baseball team, players will recognize that the program is carrying weight. I can begin to build a relationship with USA Baseball to where they can call me and I won’t be afraid to say we have a guy right here at Grand Canyon. That’s one of our goals, for players to come here and get that opportunity one day. I think the ball is rolling in the right direction. I am fortunate enough to be on this coaching staff and I think that will begin to legitimize our program as one that people will look at and think ‘that’s a great place to go.’”
Stankiewicz will check in weekly throughout his journey with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team and fans can follow his adventures by visiting www.gculopes.com.
“I will try to keep it kind of loose and keep it fun. I want our players and families to see this through my experience and get a feel for Cuba, Holland, USA Baseball and the players that I will be working with,” said Stankiewicz. “I want them to experience it from a distance. I am fortunate enough to get to do it firsthand and I just want everybody to experience it with me.”
More information about the USA Baseball organization can be found by clicking here.
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