Donnie Marbut

Donnie Marbut (born February 18, 1974) is an American college baseball coach, formerly the head coach at Washington State University in Pullman for eleven seasons, from 2005 through 2015.

Born and raised in Aberdeen, Washington, Marbut was a three-sport letterman at Aberdeen High School in baseball, basketball, and football. He earned all-league honors three times each in baseball and football and once in basketball. After graduation in 1992, he attended Edmonds Community College, where he played baseball for coach Bill Stubbs. At Edmonds, Marbut was a two-time All-Conference infielder, and was named most valuable player of his team in 1995. After earning an associate's degree, he transferred to Portland State University, where he continued his baseball career as an outstanding hitter for the Vikings.

Coaching

Marbut began his coaching career back in Washington in 1998 as an assistant at Capital High School in Olympia, where he helped guide the Cougars to the state 3A championship. He then was an assistant at Bellevue Community College, which captured a conference championship in 1999. Following that season, Marbut returned to Edmonds Community College as head coach for four seasons and earned conference coach of the year honors twice and division coach of the year three times. His record at Edmonds was 152–38 (.800), including a league record 43 wins in 2003. Marbut came under fire when a Seattle Times investigative article uncovered several examples of Marbut padding his resume, as well as other financial indiscretions during his time at Edmonds and Bellevue. In the end, despite what appeared to be damning evidence against Marbut, WSU merely reprimanded Marbut.

Prior to the 2004 season, Marbut became an assistant at Washington State under fourth-year head coach Tim Mooney, where his work with infielders led to a then-school record .971671 fielding percentage and the first winning record for the Cougars since 1998. Following just one season as an assistant, Marbut became head coach at WSU after Mooney's forced resignation in late May 2004. At the time, he was the youngest head coach in the Pacific-10 Conference, at 30 years old. With Marbut as head coach, Washington State posted five winning seasons, produced 23 major league draft picks, and dramatically improved a disastrous Academic Progress Rate score.

Marbut made news in 2014 on March 27, when, only 30 minutes before game time, he had a head-on car collision while driving to the stadium. Several witnesses said Marbut was driving erratically, but while the issue of substances or distracted driving was brought up, the first was dismissed by Pullman Police. The police department never spoke publicly about the latter.

Post-coaching

On February 17, 2016, Marbut joined the Pac-12 Network as a baseball analyst, while also serving as a scout for the Houston Astros. On March 31, 2016, Marbut became the President of the West Coast League.

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