Breaking Down Baseball Barriers

NEWBERG, Ore. -- Though the George Fox baseball team will be facing the UMass Boston Beacons for the first time in program history, there is more history on the line than just a new contest.

When Bruin assistant coach Carol Laube and Beacon assistant Jacqui Reynolds take the field, the two will likely break a barrier of their own. While not verifiable via NCAA records, Laube and Reynolds both believe this may be the first time that two women coaches will compete against each other in NCAA baseball history.

“I'm excited and grateful,” Laube said, “I wouldn't be a part of this historic moment if it weren't for others taking a leap of faith and giving me a chance to coach.”

“A few years ago, many didn’t think it was possible for women to coach baseball," Reynolds added,  "This moment means a lot. It means a lot for the game and means a lot for young girls to see that after they are done playing, there is still room for them in the sport.”

The two coaches' paths have intersected throughout their careers. Laube first met Reynolds in a Zoom call coordinated by the other lone woman coach in collegiate baseball, Beth Woerner of Lebanon Valley College. Soon after, they attended the MLB-sponsored diversity event held during winter meetings called Take The Field. 

The two women still talk, and have even worked against each other in the past — Laube serving as a bench coach with the Burlington Sock Puppets of the Appalachian League, with Reynolds on the bench with the Johnson City Dough Boys. Though they have met before in a game, the Wednesday, March 12 contest will be the first time they have opposed each other in a college game.

For lifetime baseball fan Carol Laube, it was never a statement or a mission for women in sports. It was just the sport she loved. The daughter of Mets scout and former minor league player for the St. Louis Browns, Don Laube, baseball was an integral part of her childhood.

“Our home was a baseball home,” Laube said, “I spent many spring and summer days on or near a baseball field and loved everything about it.”

Though the Bruin coach would go on to spend 35 years as a professional violinist, that love of baseball never left her mind; after a nerve injury halted her music career, she turned to the coaching dream. Laube received her master’s in coaching from Ball State in 2018 and looked to become a Division III baseball coach.

Laube met with Rachel Balkovec — the current Miami Marlins head of Player Development — for six months in a mentorship program, who advised her to research and write to five coaches at the D-III level.

One coach stood out to Laube in her research: the head coach of the 2015 Bend Elks team, whom she had watched win the West Coast League Championship while in Sunriver, Oregon to play violin at a music festival, George Fox head coach Kevin Kopple.

Kopple was the one coach to respond, and the two kept in touch until a position opened in the summer of 2022. Now, one year and a half later, Laube serves as the outfield position coach, assists with hitting, and has helped the Bruins with recruiting. Though she never was on a “mission” to break into baseball, she hopes her story can provide encouragement and belief to young women everywhere, as well as shape the men she coaches today.

“When they see a woman on a baseball field, I hope it inspires them to know that anything/everything is possible — nothing is off limits to them,” Laube said, “[And] just as important is the impact I have as a coach on my players as young men and perhaps, their perceptions of women's roles anywhere in life."

Jacqueline Reynolds, assistant coach for the UMass Boston Beacons’ baseball team, started her coaching career in the spring of 2016 and has since worked her way up through collegiate baseball. For her, baseball was always the main choice over softball, going as far as initially boycotting softball from her life until she reached high school.

“I grew up with the kids in my neighborhood playing baseball, “Reynolds said, “Getting to pitch, hit, and hang out with them in the neighborhood, but when it was time for them all to go to their games I was left behind.”

By the time she was a junior in college, she was offered an assistant coach position on the team she almost didn’t play for — her high school softball team. Reynolds immediately joined following her graduation from college in the winter, where she gained valuable experience working with head coach Courtney Nelson-Sigsburry at every practice and game for her former high school varsity team.

By 2016, Reynolds started attending her brother’s AAU practices for the Mass Athletics (Mass A’s) to watch and join in if they needed assistance. Reynolds connected with the coach and offered to assist in their skills clinic, where — by the end of the clinic — she was offered the position of assistant coach for the Mass A’s U13 team until the program was ultimately shut down by the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Reynolds' job as a high school baseball coach at Newton South was also cut short, as there was no season in 2020 due to COVID. She also lost her full-time position to the pandemic the following year.

After losing her job to COVID-19, Reynolds thought it was time to look into coaching in college. It took one call to make it happen.

“I sent a message over to Coach Egyabroat,” Reynolds said, “and within the week after interviewing I was named an assistant coach for the UMass Boston Beacons.”

Reynolds holds the reins for the Beacons’ outfielders and infielders while furthering her involvement by handling the Beacons’ baseball social media accounts and populating those accounts with self-curated game-day graphics. And in her four seasons with the Beacons program, she has learned plenty about being a woman in the field.

“Whether it’s coaching baseball or playing baseball, the biggest advice I have is not taking no for an answer and not letting outside comments get to you,” Reynolds said, “A lot of people are going to have comments about you not being able to play or coach this game. It happens no matter what level you are at. Check a post with any female playing or coaching. The comments are negative towards females in the game.”

“It’s a shame because they don’t know us, they don’t know how hard we have to work to be in this game,” she continued, “It’s a hard place to be because all eyes are on you because you are different than everyone else on the field. You make one mistake everyone knows. If you’re playing and make an error or strikeout, everyone knows. There’s a lot of extra pressure out there for it. You can’t let it get to you.”

For both Laube and Reynolds, it has been a long road to finding themselves in baseball. And while there have been struggles along the way, there have been triumphs for both. A walk-off win, a moment connecting with a player. The two have blazed a trail, intentionally or not, and have worked hard to get to their position, a rarity in collegiate baseball.

But thankfully, on Wednesday, they won’t be alone.