Few coaches in the history of NJCAA baseball have found success as quickly as Iowa Western’s Marc Rardin. Now in his 13th season with the Reivers, Rardin already ranks 55th among active coaches in wins with a career record of 559-168 entering 2014. His .769 win percentage also stands as the fifth-highest rate of victory among active coaches in the NJCAA with at least 10 seasons under their belt.
Since Rardin’s arrival in 2003, the Reivers have made eight appearances at the NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series. Iowa Western claimed their first national championship in 2010, becoming the first program from the Northern District to win the tournament. Rardin’s teams went on to claim two more national titles in 2012 and 2014 as the Reivers became the first program to win the NJCAA DI Baseball Championship three times in five years since the sport split into divisions in 1992.
Despite the team’s tremendous success, several individuals have developed under Rardin’s guidance and have made exceptional personal achievements. Rardin’s players include 11 NJCAA All-Americans, 70 all-region selections and 107 NCAA Division I signees. In the classroom, his student-athletes have earned 22 NJCAA academic student-athlete awards.
Adding to his contributions towards the growth of two-year college baseball, Rardin has been a part of three NJCAA national teams that have represented the United States in national and international competitions. He served as an assistant on the 2008 national team that played a three-game series against the Taiwanese Junior National Team and the 2010 squad that participated in the Honkbal Tournament in Haarlem, Netherlands. Rardin was named head coach of the 2014 national team that competed in the 80th annual National Baseball Congress (NBC) World Series.
After spending two seasons as a volunteer assistant at Baylor, Rardin landed his first NJCAA coaching job as an assistant at Yavapai (Ariz.) in 2000. He also spent the fall of 2003 working at Lamar (Colo.) before taking his first head coaching job at Iowa Western. A former NJCAA student-athlete himself, Rardin played at Indian Hills (Iowa) before transferring to Iowa Wesleyan for the remainder of his collegiate playing career.