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Phil Stephenson
General Manager/Head Coach |
Phil Stephenson enters his 6th season as Head
Baseball Coach with Dodge City
Community College. A
native of Guthrie, Okla.,
Stephenson was a three-time, first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference baseball
selection at Wichita
State University,
including the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year honor in 1982. A
first-team All-American at first base in 1981 and 1982, Stephenson was named
the Baseball News College Player of the Year in 1982.
As a member of the Shockers’ College World
Series squad in 1982, Stephenson still holds the Wichita State career records
for hits (418), runs scored (420), RBI (322), total bases (730), stolen bases
(206), walks (300) and hitting streak (47 games). Stephenson held 13 individual
NCAA records at the conclusion of his career at Wichita State
and he still currently holds NCAA career records for hits, runs, total bases,
stolen bases and walks.
Stephenson was a 3rd round choice of the Oakland A’s in 1982 free
agent draft. He played 14 years of professional baseball, with 4 of those years
coming in the major leagues as a member of the Chicago Cubs and the San Diego
Padres. After retiring in 1995, Stephenson spent 4 years coaching in
professional baseball, managing one year with the Abilene Prairie Dogs of the
Texas-Louisiana League winning the league championship and being named Manager
of the Year in 1996, managing in the South Atlantic League in Fayetteville,
North Carolina with the Montreal Expos organization, and 2 years as the Hitting
Instructor with the Wichita Wranglers, the AA affiliate of the Kansas City
Royals. In 2000, Stephenson was the volunteer coach at his alma mater, Wichita State.
During the next 4 years, Stephenson was
self-employed in Wichita, Kansas
doing sports radio broadcasting in the Wichita
market and operating an indoor batting cage business. Stephenson also organized
and ran a charity “Wiffleball” tournament in Wichita to raise money for children who have
autism and other communication disorders.
On October 5th, 2008, Stephenson was inducted into the
Kansas Sports Hall of Fame along with 10 other inductees. In 2007,
Stephenson was elected to the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in Lubbock, Texas.
He has also been named as one of the 3 best College baseball players of the
20th Century by Collegiate Baseball and one of the top ten College baseball
players of all-time by Baseball America.
Stephenson is also a member of the Guthrie High School Hall of Fame, the Wichita, Kansas
Sports Hall of Fame, the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame, the Wichita State
University Hall of Fame, and the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame.
A 1983 graduate of Wichita State with a bachelor’s degree in business
administration, Stephenson and his wife Kim have four children, Ashley (17),
Bret (16), Emily (12), and Caroline (10). In his spare time, Stephenson enjoys
spending time with his family, coaching his daughters’ sports teams, playing
golf and basketball, instructing youth baseball and softball players, and computers.
Phil is also the General Manager/Head Coach of the Dodge City A's, a summer collegiate baseball
team that competes in the Jayhawk Collegiate Summer League.
Coach Stephenson and his children
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Michael LaCourse
Assistant Coach |
Dodge City welcomes Michael LaCourse back,
this time as an assistance coach.
Michael is a native of Colleyville, Texas and graduated from Grapevine High School
in 2006. He signed with Tyler Junior College
in East Texas, where he started his collegiate
career. He had two successful years with
the Apaches, winning the 2007 D-3 Junior College National Championship and in
2008 was named a Junior College All-American.
After the conclusion of LaCourse's
sophomore year he signed with Dallas
Baptist University
where he finished up his final two years of collegiate ball.
In LaCourse's freshman year at TJC
he was an All-NAC Conference Honorable Mention and helped the Apaches to their
first National Championship Win. He was
named to 2007 JUCO All World Series Team after pitching in four of the five
games of the tournament, including the National Championship title game where
he was awarded the win. After the
conclusion of his freshman year he was awarded a spot in the Texas/New Mexico
Junior College All-Star Team and was named a 2008 pre-Conference Pitcher and
All-American. His Career stats as a
Tyler Junior College Apaches amounted to 17/4 record with a 2.78 earned run
average on 43 appearances and 120 innings pitched. He logged 114 strikeouts and had an opponent
batting average of .196. In Michael's two JUCO summers he
played with the Ozark Generals in the M.I.N.K. Collegiate League and the East
Texas Pumpjacks in the Texas Collegiate League.
LaCourse played both his Junior
and Senior seasons with Dallas
Baptist University,
a D-1 Independent. He finished at DBU
with 25 appearances and a 1-1 record. In
his 30 logged innings he struck out 34 and had an earned run average of 6.15. In the summer of 2009 Michael played for the Dodge City A's in the Jayhawk Collegiate
League where he was named to the 1-st Team All-Jayhawk Team after posting a
2.67 earned run average with 30 innings pitched. In his 15 appearances LaCourse had 40
strikeouts and had an opponents batting average of only .189.
Michael is finishing up his
degree in Business management and works at both Cornerstone Wealth Strategies,
a financial firm in Colleyville, Texas, and Swing
City, an indoor hitting facility in Keller, Texas. At Swing City Michael works everyday with
kids from five years old all the way up to collegiate and professional level
players on both hitting and pitching. It
is owned by Luis Ortiz, the Head Roaming Hitting instructor for the Texas
Rangers, who for the last year has mentored and taught Michael not only
breaking down mechanics, but also how to be a much better communicator and
coach. Besides everyday instruction at Swing City,
Michael's coaching experience consists of coaching the Swing
City Bombers select/tournament baseball team, and the Grapevine High School
Varsity baseball team during the 2010 summer.
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Michael Robbins
Assistant Coach |
Michael Robbins is in his first
year as an Assistant Coach for the Dodge City Athletics. He received his Bachelor's degree in Liberal
Studies in 2009 from McNeese
State University. He is also a graduate of Meridian Community College.
Michael played baseball for Meridian Community College in 2005 and 2006. During the 2005 season at Meridian Community College,
Michael was a 41st rd selection of the Atlanta Braves. In 2005, Michael was also a member of the Mississippi Junior College
state champion team at Meridian
Community College.
In 2006, Michael was a 28th rd
selection of the Washington Nationals, and again a member of the Mississippi Junior College
state champions at Meridian
Community College. While playing ball for Meridian, Michael was a MACJC 1st team
All-State Selection and 2nd team all Region 23.
2.7 E.R.A. w/83 K's
in 65 innings.
In 2008, Michael attended and
played for McNeese
State. He appeared in 12 games with 5 starts. 4.35 E.R.A.
Michael is currently the
Volunteer Assistant for New
Mexico Junior College. He assists the pitching staff and coaches
first base. His hometown is Southaven, Mississippi,
where his parents, Rick and Penny still reside.
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Alex
Macedo
Administrative
Assistant
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Alex Macedo, a Dodge
City native, played baseball at Dodge City High School
from 2005-2009 and also played summer baseball with the Dodge City Rangers
during that span.
Macedo graduated from Dodge City Community College
in the spring of 2011 and will be transferring to Wichita State
University to pursue a
degree in Sports Management and Accounting.
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Jason Luft
Bat Boy
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Jason Luft, son of Tyler and
Jackie Luft, has been batboy for the Dodge
City A's
baseball team since summer of 2009.
Jason attends Spearville
Junior High School and
will be entering the 7th grade. His love
for sports shows through is participation in Dodge City Recreation Football,
Spearville Titans Baseball Tournament Team, SPA11 Baseball, Spearville Titans
Baseball, 6th Grade MAYB Basketball Team, and a State Qualifier for Hershey
Track Meet. He is also a member of Holy
Cross Lutheran Youth Fellowship group and enjoys spending time hanging out with
his friends, swimming, fishing and playing video games with his "summer brothers" (the A's players the family
hosts).
David Saiz and Rick Lesperance
(Jason's summer
brothers this year) say Jason has a lot of energy and he is dedicated to the
team. When Jason is asked what his
favorite part about being a bat boy, he responded, "Helping with the batting practice and the food
after the games." You will see Jason, not only at the home games,
but at many of the out of town games as well.
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Dylan Schuette
Announcer
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Dylan Schuette begins his fourth
year as the Public Address Announcer for the Dodge City A's. Dylan was
born and raised in Dodge City,
Kansas. He graduated from Dodge
City High School and Dodge City Community College, where he studied Mass
Communications, and did some work in radio.
Since high school Dylan has had a passion for sports broadcasting.
Dylan attends Fort Hays State University,
and is pursuing a degree in Information, Networking, and
Telecommunications. In addition to
baseball Dylan has broadcast football games for Eagle Communications, and
worked a variety of positions at KFHS during Fort Hays State basketball, and volleyball
games.
Dylan also works in radio at Fort Hays
State University. Once he receives his degree from Fort Hays
State, Dylan would like
to get a job doing play-by-play or color commentary in either radio or
television.
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