Brett Monaghan - 4th Year
Brett Monaghan enters his fourth season as head baseball coach at Iowa Wesleyan College in 2009-10 on pace to become the winningest coach in school history.In just three seasons Monaghan already has the second-most wins by an IWC coach in school history. Monaghan’s first three Tiger teams have combined to win 82 games, second only behind Tony Damewood’s 97 wins from 1992-95. His 82-68 career record and .547 career win percentage also is second all-time at the school among coaches with tenures of three or more seasons.
Last year Monaghan’s Tigers just missed their third straight Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament championship, losing to William Penn University in the tourney final. Wesleyan finished with a 29-22 record and defeated four nationally ranked teams on the season. The highlight was a win at Oklahoma City University, ranked #1 in the nation in the NAIA. IWC also featured the MCC Player of the Year in Frany Cruz and had four players named First Team All-MCC.
Monaghan’s first two years at IWC were marked by the Tigers winning back-to-back MCC Tournament championships and finishing a string of three straight NAIA regional tournament appearances. In 2008 the Tigers finished with a 21-27 overall record but rolled through the MCC tourney to earn an automatic berth to regionals. At the regional tournament in Joliet, Ill., IWC posted a pair of wins, finishing third in the tournament in its best postseason showing since 1966.
In 2007, his first year at IWC, Monaghan led the Tigers to a 32-19 record and the school's first-ever MCC Tournament championship. It was IWC's first winning season since 1995, and the 32 wins were the third-most in school history. The Tigers also won a game at regionals for the first time since 1966, finishing 1-2 and fourth in the tourney.
Monaghan was hired in December 2006 as the 22nd head baseball coach at IWC since 1965. Before coming to IWC, Monaghan served as assistant baseball coach at Marshalltown Community College for five years and was employed as Family Sports Director at the Community YMCA of Marshalltown. He concluded a six-month position in October of 2006 as Operations Supervisor at The Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Monaghan oversaw all activities at a new complex, which hosted tournaments, showcases and camps. He had the opportunity to work with future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and Bill Ripken.
Monaghan graduated from Hubbard-Radcliffe (Iowa) High School in 1999. He earned Class 1A All-State honors as a pitcher there. Monaghan stayed on at Hubbard-Radcliffe as an assistant coach in 2000 and 2001. The following summer, he helped as an assistant coach for the Triple Play Baseball Club in Seattle, Wash., where he worked with pitchers and outfielders on a national select team.
Monaghan went on to pitch at Marshalltown Community College, but had his sophomore season cut short due to a torn rotator cuff. He then joined the Marshalltown coaching staff as an assistant from the fall of 2001 to the spring of 2006. Monaghan helped nearly 50 of his former players transfer to four-year institutions and had five players sign professional contracts.
Monaghan was head baseball coach at BCLUW High School in Conrad from the summer of 2004 to the spring of 2006. He also works as an Associate Scout for the Cincinnati Reds Baseball Club, a position he's held for four years.
Monaghan earned his B.S. in Physical Education from the University of Northern Iowa in December 2003. Brett and his wife, Sadie, have two daughters, Vada (4 years old) and Sylvie (2), and one son, Gavin (1).
Alain Quijano - 1st Year
Alain Quijano is in his first year as an assistant coach for the baseball team at Iowa Wesleyan College.Quijano will coach the pitchers for the Tigers and comes from fellow Midwest Collegiate Conference school Grand View University, where he was an assistant the past two years. This past year he helped the Vikings tie IWC for the MCC regular season title and defeat the Tigers in the MCC Tournament championship game to advance to the NAIA National Tournament. Grand View improved from 17-28 to 29-20 last year, and Quijano coached a pitching staff that ranked among the top-5 in the NAIA in fewest walks allowed.
It was Quijano’s second stint as a coach at Grand View, as he played two years for the Vikings from 2004-05 and was a student assistant coach in 2006. He then was a graduate assistant coach at Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.) University in 2007 and 2008 and was a part of back-to-back 30-win teams.
Quijano also has played a total of six professional seasons in independent leagues and in 2008 was a member of the Windy City Thunderbolts team that won the Frontier League title. His collegiate career included two years at Marshalltown Community College, where current IWC Head Coach Brett Monaghan was an assistant at the time. He then went on to play two more years at Grand View and won 16 games in two years as a starter, including being named All-Midwest Classic (now Midwest Collegiate) Conference in 2004.
Quijano is a native of Des Moines and received his bachelor’s degree from Grand View in Communications and his master’s from Lincoln Memorial in Education Administration. He attended Des Moines Lincoln High School, where he played for his father Alec, who is the head baseball coach.
Ryan Hanson - 1st Year
Ryan Hanson joins the baseball coaching staff at Iowa Wesleyan College as an assistant coach for the 2011 season.Hanson comes to Wesleyan after being a graduate assistant the past two years at Concordia University in Irvine, Calif. He was a catching and first base coach there while completing his master’s degree in Coaching and Athletic Administration. He will serve as hitting coach at IWC.
Hanson also was the head coach this summer for the Dubuque Hawks of the River Valley League, a summer collegiate league. He also coached at Orange Coast College in 2004-05, working again with catchers and first basemen.
As an athlete Hanson played both football and baseball at the NCAA Division I level. He played football at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas from 1999-2001 and was the starting long snapper on UNLV’s 2000 Las Vegas Bowl champion team. He also walked on as a member of the baseball team, then after a year at a junior college he received a scholarship to the University of San Francisco. At USF, Hanson would be named Honorable Mention All-West Coast Conference as a catcher in 2003.
Hanson also played two years of independent professional baseball after college from 2006-07. He played for the Florence Freedom and Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League and also for the Edmonton Cracker-Cats of the Northern League.
Along with coaching baseball, Hanson also is living on campus at IWC as Community Director of McKibbin Hall. He is a native of Los Alamitos, Calif., and a 1999 graduate of Los Alamitos High School.
