Athletics · September 10, 2024
Former Ironclad Catcher Nate Wollenberg Named Head Baseball Coach
Wollenberg, who caught for Porter from 2009 to 2012, succeeds Rick Tauscher, who retired in June after 26 seasons.
Nate Wollenberg, a four-year catcher for the Ironclads and for the last eight years an assistant coach at another Division III program in the Upper Midwest, has been named head coach of Ironclad baseball. He starts September 16, in time for the fall-ball segment, and will be the program’s third head coach since it became a varsity sport in 1975.
Wollenberg succeeds Rick Tauscher, who retired in June after 26 seasons. Tauscher took over in 1999, the year Dunmore Field was dedicated, and won 512 games, two conference tournament titles and the affection of an unusually large number of former players, about 60 of whom turned up at his final home game in April.
The search committee interviewed four finalists. Wollenberg was the only one who asked to see the batting cage before he asked about the budget.
“Nate knows what it is to catch a doubleheader on Saturday and sit in a three-hour lab on Monday, because he did it. Our players are engineers and nurses and welders who also happen to play baseball. We needed a coach who thinks that is the point, not a scheduling problem.”
— Chuck Running, Director of Athletics
At Porter, Wollenberg earned a B.S. in construction management and was a two-time all-conference catcher. As an assistant he ran the pitching staff and the program’s recruiting in three states. He said his first priorities are rebuilding the pitching depth lost to graduation and moving more practice time indoors before 7 a.m. so players stop missing afternoon labs.
“Coach Tauscher left this program in good shape, and he left me a phone list,” Wollenberg said. “I plan to use both.”
The team finished 19–20 last spring and returns six position starters. Fall ball runs through mid-October, with the annual alumni game set for October 5 at Dunmore Field. Like every Ironclad program, baseball offers no athletic scholarships; prospective players can find recruiting contacts in the athletics staff directory.
Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. These coaches, their records and the search that hired one of them are invented; no real person was hired or retired.