Jason Thiel

Jason Thiel ‘03 enters his eighth season as Head Baseball Coach at his alma mater in the spring of 2024.

Since taking the reins of the program in the middle of the 2016 season, Thiel has produced the Conference Player of the Year (Vince Rebar) in 2017, five First Team All-Conference players (Rebar in 2017, Trevor Powers in 2018, Jake Schuster in 2018, 2019 and Max Slusser in 2023) as well as four Second Team selections. Rebar also earned ECAC First Team honors as well as ABCA/Rawlings and D3Baseball.com Second Team All-Region honors in 2017. Schuster was selected First Team All-Region (Mid-Atlantic) by the ABCA and Second and Third Team All-Region by D3Baseball.com in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Schuster is the first player in Marywood program history to earn First Team All-Region honors. Schuster became the first All-American in Marywood athletics history.

Thiel was originally hired as Assistant Baseball Coach with the Pacers prior to the 2014 season after previously serving as a volunteer coach. As an assistant coach, he helped lead the Pacers to their first No. 1 seed in 2015. A native of Scranton, Thiel was a three-year starting shortstop for the Scranton Knights and helped lead them to a league championship in 1996 while being selected to the all-star game later that year.

Thiel enrolled at Lackawanna College for the 1996-98 seasons and became a two-year starting shortstop. In 1998, Thiel led the Falcons to a Top-15 NJCAA ranking, back-to-back 20-win seasons, and Region XIX postseason tournament appearances. He was selected to play for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Twins of the Atlantic Collegiate baseball League (ACBL) for the 1998 and 1999 seasons. A highly competitive wooden bat league comprised of mainly Division I and II athletes, Thiel was the starting shortstop for two years and was among the league leaders with a .402 batting average in the 1999 season.

Thiel joined Marywood University for the 1999 and 2000 seasons where he was a two-year starting shortstop. Thiel helped the Pacers go from 21 total victories and eight conference wins in the four years prior to his arrival to 32 victories and 12 conference wins in his two years with the Pacers.

Thiel led the Pacers to the most wins in a season by the time he graduated. Thiel left as the leader in most runs scored in a season, most singles in a game, tied with most hits in a game, most assists in a game, most assists in a season and also helped with most teams wins in a season and most conference wins in a season.

Thiel holds an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts from Lackawanna College and Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from Marywood University. He resides in East Stroudsburg with his wife Katherinne. Their children Ian, Nicholas, Ashton, Amaralis and dog Charlie keep them busy! Jason also works as a Graduate Counselor in the Admissions Department at Marywood.

 THE JASON THIEL FILE

COACHING EXPERIENCE

2017-Present: Marywood, Head Coach
2016: Marywood, Co-Head Coach
2014-16: Marywood, Assistant Coach

EDUCATION

A.A., Lackawanna '98, Liberal Arts
B.S., Marywood '03, Business Management

MARYWOOD HIGHLIGHTS

  • One ABCA/Rawlings 1st Team All-American
  • One D3Baseball.com All-Region (V) 1st Team
  • One ABCA/Rawlings 1st Team All-Region (Mid-Atlantic)
  • Two D3Baseball.com 2nd Team All-Region
  • One ABCA/Rawlings 2nd Team All-Region (Mid-Atlantic)
  • Two Conference Player of the Year
  • Two Conference Rookie of the Year
  • Five First Team All-Conference Players
  • Five Second Team All-Conference Players
  • Two Seasons with the most wins in program history (22)
  • Highest Fielding Percentage in program history (.962)
  • Four CSC Academic All-District

YEAR-BY-YEAR

Year Overall Record AEC Record
2024 22-16 7-11
2023 15-23 4-14
2022 22-15 6-12
2021 7-15 4-14
*2020 5-6 Season Canceled Due to Covid-19
2019 7-24 2-10
2018 16-18 6-10 (CSAC)
2017 14-22        9-13 (CSAC)
^2016 7-15 1-13 (CSAC)
8.5 Seasons 115-154 (.428) 39-97 (.286)

^Named Interim Co-Head Coach midway through 2016 season. Record indicates season coaching record, not team season record.
*Spring 2020 season was canceled March 13, 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic