WASHINGTON BASEBALL ACADEMY COACHES
Motivators. Educators. Mentors.
TRAINING COACHES
COACH NATE SANTIAGO
Head Hitting/Infield Coach
Coach Santiago runs the Washington Baseball Academy hitting program.
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Coach Nate Santiago is a top hitting/infield coach in the area with years of coaching experience. His Collegiate baseball career began at Bellevue CC 2002-2005 and continued at Centenary College where he was the starting shortstop from 2005-2007.
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After graduating from Centenary College Coach Santiago turned his baseball career towards coaching and became an assistant coach at Centenary College from 2007-2009 before moving back to the Pacific Northwest where he became an assistant coach under legendary Coach Mark Yoshino at Bellevue CC from 2009-2012. Coach Santiago then became the Hitting Coach at Pierce College from 2012-2014 and from 2014-2016 was the Assistant Coach at Edmonds CC.
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Coach Santiago has coached at the select level with Rijo Athletics, Baden, Easton and ProPlayer. He also has several years of college level experience coaching at Pierce CC, Bellevue CC, Edmonds CC.and at Centenary College.
COACH TYLER HAGGETT
Head Pitching Coach
Coach Haggett runs the Washington Baseball Academy pitching program.
Coach Haggett played at Meadowdale high school where he was named an All-Star League First Team Pitcher in his senior season. .Coach Haggett played at the collegiate level with Edmonds CC and San Jose State. He has coached for several top level select programs prior to taking over the pitching program for Washington Baseball Academy.
COACH JACOB TERAO
Head Catching Coach
Coach Terao was a 4 year varsity baseball and 3 year varsity football player at Seattle Prep where he earned first team honors his senior year and was the Seattle Prep Male Athlete of the Year winner
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In football Coach Terao earned 1st team honors on offense, as a running back, and on defense, as middle linebacker, the only player in his 3A division to receive 1st team honors for both offense and defense.
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In baseball Coach Terao's senior year he was a first team All-Metro Catcher, and made the Metro 3A Alll-Star Team. He was a top 3 ranked catcher in the state and top 10 Washington prospect for the MLB Draft.
Coach Terao played on the Baseball NW and PAC NW travel teams and was an Area Code Selection for the KC Royals. He played collegiately at Bellevue College , University of Portland and Towson University. He also played for the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox, and Bellingham Bells collegiate summer teams. Coach Terao is currently the catching coach at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas.
COACH ROMELL MITCHELL
Outfield/Hitting Coach
Coach Mitchell has years of experience in both playing and coaching. While attending West Seattle High School he was a 3 sport letter winner in Football, Basketball and Baseball. He earned All Metro 1st Team Selection as an Outfielder in both his Junior & Senior years.​
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Coach Mitchell was drafted out of West Seattle High School in the 17th Round of the 1997 Major League Draft by the Houston Astro's but chose to go to college and play baseball. He played ball at Bellevue College and St. Martin's College before being drafted by the San Diego Padres. He played professional baseball in both the Frontier and Canadian baseball Leagues.
COACH JACOB TALAMANTE
Outfield Coach
Talamante graduated from Saint Mary's College of California where he played OF for the Gaels 2017-2021.​
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In his final season for the Gaels Talamante appeared in 43 games and made 42 starts as a fifth-year senior in 2021, the second-most starts on the team. He led the Gaels in batting average (.299), hits (47), doubles (12), triples (2), stolen bases (13), and on-base percentage (.414). His OBP was good for a top-ten finish in the WCC, and his 13 stolen bases were the fourth-most. He had a seven-game hitting streak and was named All-WCC Honorable Mention.​
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Talamante was signed with the Gary SouthShore RailCats, of the American Association of Professional Baseball, and then joined the Missoula PaddleHeads aof the Pioneer League.
COACH J.J. Asinas
Pitching Coach
Coach Asinas hails from Federal Way Washington and attended and played baseball at Todd Beamer High School.
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Coach Asinas played collegiately at Central Washington University as a pitcher, and infielder. appearing in 54 games as a pitcher. He finished his 5 years at CWU with a 12-6 record, 137 innings pitched, and 111 strikeouts.
2023 WBA TEAM COACHES
COACH DYLAN MCLAUCHLIN
18U HEAD COACH
Coach McLauchlin, graduated and played baseball at Enumclaw High School
He started his collegiate career at Green River Community College but after only playing for one year tore his UCL and was forced to cut his pitching career short.
Coach McLauchlin has several years of select team coaching experience coaching at Baden and Rijo Athletics as a pitching and hitting coach. He also coached the Baden 13U-15U select teams while at Baden.
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Coach McLauchlin was an assistant coach for Mercer Island High School baseball team prior to taking the assistant baseball coaching position at West Seattle High School.
COACH GARY TATTERSON
18U Co-HEAD COACH
Coach Tatterson comes from Arizona and is in his second year as the Head Baseball Coach at Cleveland High School.
Coach Tatterson started his collegiate pitching career at Glendale Community College in Arizona and was drafted by the Twins in the 16th round. Coach Tatterson chose to continue his collegiate career at Arizona State where he sustained an injury but was still drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 35th round.
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Coach Tatterson brings years of baseball experience to the WBA program and we are excited to have him with the WBA program.
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COACH DAVID JOHNSON
16U HEAD COACH
Coach Johnson hails from West Seattle where he was a West Seattle Little League All-Star. He attended Chief Sealth High School where he was a standout infielder and Team Captain. He was a first team Metro 3A All-Star selection his senior year.
He attended and played baseball on scholarship at Whitman College. In his freshman year he started all but one of his 48 games played. and batted .292 with 33 runs, 36 RBI, 14 doubles, a triple and five homeruns...season high four hits against Whitworth, batting 4-5 including a double and a homerun to go along with one run and four RBI...belted a grand slam vs. Occidental as part of a two-hit, two-run, seven-RBI performance...homered three times in a five game NWC stretch and .batted 3-4 with one run in the NCAA Tournament at Chapman.
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His junior year he saw action in 16 games prior to the season being suspended. for COVID. He had a .266. batting average and scored nine runs with eight RBI, three doubles, a triple and a homerun.
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In his senior year he played in 30 games with 27 starts.. He was second on the team in homeruns (8) to go along with 21 runs, four doubles and one triple finishing with a .344 batting average on the season helping his team to make the conference tournament.
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Coach Johnson graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Biology. After graduating he became a Emergency Medical Technician and is now working on his Medicall Degree.
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COACH NATE RASMUSSEN
15U Head Coach
Coach Rasussen attended and played baseball at West Seattle High School 2017-2021. During the summer of 2021 Coach Rasmussen played for Washington Baseball Academy in its innaugural year.
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After High School Coach Rasmussen attended and pitched at Bellevue CC under legendary coach Mark Yoshino.. His freshman and sophomore years he appeared in 25 games, completed 63 innings on the bump going 3-3 with 6 saves finishing with a 4.13 ERA, striking out 52 batters in 63 innings.
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Coach Rasmussen transferred to Bushnell University in Oregon where he had 9 appearances 6 as a starter with a 1-2 record. He compiled 34.2 innings giving up 29 hits 12 BB and 20 K's finishing with a 5.19 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP
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In 2023 Coach Coach Rasmussen is currently continuing his collegiate baseball career at Bushnell University in Oregon.
COACH TYLER TODISH
14U Co-HEAD COACH
Coach Todish comes from thr Tri-Cities area where he attended Kennewick High School and played outfield for the Lions.
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For collegee he attended and played outfield at Big Bend Colleg.e but was cut short due to COVID. He played in 14 games and had a .324 BA and .416 OBP. Defensively he was 16 for 16 a 1.000 fielding percentage.
COACH DALE DOLEJSI
13U HEAD COACH
Coach Dolejsi attended and played baseball at Charles Lindbergh High School as a pitcher..
After High School Coach Dolejsi went on to play on scholarship at University of the Pacific in Stockton California.
Standing at 6' 9" Coach Dolejsi was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 51st round of the 1994 MLB Amateur Draft..
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After his professional baseball career Coach Dolejsi earned his teaching certificate and is the Art teacher at Kennedy Catholic High School and was the Head Baseball Coach.
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We are fortunate to have Coach Dolejsi on staff to teach and train our young baseball players on all aspects of the game.