The Waterloo Bucks have hired a former UNI assistant baseball coach to guide the team during the 2016 Northwoods League (NWL) season.

The Bucks announced the hiring of Scott Douglas as the team’s new Field Manager on Friday (Dec. 11, 2015). No stranger to the coaching ranks, Douglas has 25 years of coaching experience, including four years as the skipper of the Regina Red Sox of the summer-collegiate Western Major Baseball League (WMBL) based in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada.

“We are excited to welcome Scott into the Bucks organization,” said Waterloo General Manager Dan Corbin. “With experience as a professional player, Head Coach in the collegiate ranks, and Field Manager at both the professional and summer-collegiate levels, Scott was our top choice to lead our squad in our 22nd season of baseball. Scott is well respected throughout baseball and we are thrilled to have him in our dugout.”

A resident of Lakewood, Colorado, Douglas spent 2006, 2007, 2014, and 2015 as skipper of Regina where his squads made the playoffs all four years, clinching the division pennant twice, and advancing to the league final in 2015. Douglas was voted the WMBL’s Coach of the Year in 2006.

In 2012 and ‘13, Douglas was the head coach at Colorado Christian University. Prior to that, Douglas was the Head Coach at Trinidad State Junior College from 2000-2012.

Douglas was an assistant coach with the UNI Panthers in 1997 and 1998, working under head coach Dave Schrage.

“I want to thank Dan and the ownership of the Bucks for the opportunity to manage in Waterloo in 2016,” said Douglas. “I am looking forward to the challenge of winning a title in Waterloo and continuing the proud tradition that the others before me have established.

"The chance to return to Iowa for the summer was an easy choice and one that I could not pass up. We have already begun to assemble a solid staff and roster, one that can compete in one of the premier leagues in the country.”

Beginning his coaching career in 1990, Douglas was a Head Coach/Player in the semi-professional/collegiate Saskatchewan Major Baseball League for three seasons. From 1992-’96, Douglas was an assistant coach at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas.

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Douglas then moved on to the pro ranks, becoming the third base coach for the Moose Jaw Diamond Dogs in the Prairie League and was promoted to field manager mid-season, a post he held until the end of the 1997 season, adding the title of assistant general manager along the way.

Douglas takes over for Tony Manville, who was Waterloo's skipper in 2015 and had been the Bucks’ pitching coach the previous two seasons. Manville recently accepted a full-time position at a baseball academy in Minnesota.

"I had an incredible three summers in Waterloo,” said Manville. “I am sad to not be coming back, but I know Waterloo will always be a part of me. I can't thank Dan Corbin and the Cedar Rapids Ball Club ownership group enough for the support and opportunity. The Bucks are a class organization and I know Coach Douglas will continue the great tradition. Fear the Deer!"

Douglas played his collegiate baseball at Waldorf Junior College (now Waldorf College) in Forest City and at Hardin-Simmons before playing professional baseball for the Regina Cyclones of the North Central League and for Moose Jaw from 1994-’95. In 1994, Douglas graduated from Hardin-Simmons (HSU) with a Bachelor of Behavioral Science Degree, then earned a Master of Education Degree in Sports and Recreation Management from HSU in 2000.

Douglas is currently the facility manager at the Gold Crown Foundation in Lakewood, Colorado. He and his wife Keri have two children, Kade (13) and Seth (10).

Douglas becomes the 11th manager in Waterloo Bucks history, following Bucks Baseball Hall of Fame member Eric Snider (1995-98), NWL All-Decade Team manager Darrell Handelsman (1999-2002), Andy Haines (2003-04), Jason Shockey (2005), Corey Allen (2006), Dan Fitzgerald (2007), Pete Lauritson (2008-09), Jason Nell (2010-11), Travis Kiewiet (2012-14), and Manville (2015).

The Bucks open their 22nd season of Northwoods League baseball on May 31, 2016, when they host the St. Cloud Rox at Riverfront Stadium. Waterloo recently announced its 72-game, 2016 schedule.

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