From Dawg to Mariner and now to a Coug, Joe Ross has been everywhere in the state of Washington when it comes to being a part of a baseball club. Washington State and head baseball coach Donnie Marbut made the announcement this week that Ross would join the Cougars to become the assistant coach.
Ross, who has spent his last 5 years as a scout for the Seattle Mariners, had previously spent 17 years at Montlake as a top assistant coach and associate head coach under head coach Ken Knutson.
From 1980-1986 Ross was the head coach at Wisconsin-River Falls. In 1987 Ross left Wisconsin-River Falls and became the head coach at Normandale Community College and was head coach until leaving for Washington in 1993. During his time at Normandale Ross managed to go 180-38 while winning 6 league championships and 3 state titles among many other accolades.
During Ross’ tenure at Washington (1993-2009) the Huskies were able to go 584-399-2 while having an incoming recruit class in the top 30, 6 times.
Ross has had great success in the northwest and is only looking to continue that success as he brings his talents over to the east-side of the state. The Mariners have struggled in years past but have recently become a team that is going to compete for the top spot in the division in coming years. Most of this success has come from recruiting young players and the talents that others looked right over. Ross has had a big part in that with his recruiting that he has done for the team. Ross is able to bring that talent and knowledge of the game and the area to Pullman and help the Cougars and Marbut over the hump that they have been struggling to climb over.