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This past season Bob Macaluso coached under former CSU Bakersfield baseball coach Bill Kernen as his assistant coach.
However, Macaluso, 51, felt that he was working toward eventually taking over as head coach for the Roadrunners, and on Aug. 31, Athletic Director Kenneth Siegfried finally announced in a press conference inside the Icardo Room that Macaluso is the new head baseball coach and the second in CSUB’s history.
“I’m just really excited that I have this opportunity, and this day is really special for me,” Macaluso said.
Macaluso said that from the start of last season Kernen told him and assistant coaches Alex Hoover and Richie Escalera to go for the head coach position.
“I wanted to be the head coach,” he said. “I tried to do everything I could to be the head coach and as the summer went on and then when it got close to crunch time with the interviews, being on campus and I knew some of the guys who were in the process it really got stressful because they were very qualified candidates. When I did get the phone call that I was the new head coach, I was extremely excited.”
Macaluso, who spent nine seasons as a head coach at Division III Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa. from 1998-2006, was among 20 candidates that applied for the job.
The other finalists for the job were assistant coaches Jason Dietrich from CSU Fullerton and Jordon Twohig from CSU Northridge and Southeast Missouri State head coach Steve Bieser.
Macaluso earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in physical education from Springfield College in Massachussets, where he also played as an infielder and pitcher.
Before arriving at CSUB, he also was an assistant at UC Irvine for seven seasons.
“I think every coach would like to be a coach of a Division I program,” he said. “Most coaches have an aspiration of being a Division I head coach, and I got the opportunity to come to California… to work with some really good coaches. I learned, I always listened, I did the best I could and after seven or eight years, I felt I was ready to make the step to Division I and I’m grateful to get this opportunity here. I feel I’m certainly qualified and I’m ready to be the head coach here.”
He said that he learned from Kernen this past year about leadership and how to communicate with his players.
“I just hope that I can coach and instill in the players what he did from a mental standpoint,” he said.
CSUB is coming off its best year in which they went 37-24-1 and won its first Western Athletic Conference Tournament. The Roadrunners also earned their first NCAA Tournament appearance and won their first NCAA Division I postseason victory in any sport when they beat Ole Miss 2-1 on May 30.
CSUB junior starting pitcher Steven Gee said he was happy to see Macaluso get the job.
“It’s great to have Coach Mac as our head coach,” said Gee. “He was the assistant coach last year, so we know what he is all about and we know what we are going to get. He’s a great leader and hopefully he’ll lead us to another championship.”
Siegfried said that what separated Macaluso from all the other candidates is that he ahas always produced.
“Everywhere he has been he has been successful, and quite frankly, all the other candidates will be highly successful head coaches but we just thought at this point that coach Macaluso was the right choice,” Siegfried said. “It felt really good [to tell Macaluso he got the job]. When someone has put in so much time into their baseball career and so much time into becoming a Division I head baseball coach and to be able to give them that good news, it feels really good. He has earned it.”