ROB PENDERS

Head Coach
Phone: 512-448-8497
Send me an e-mail

Rob Penders begins his sixth season as the head coach of the St. Edward’s baseball team. Last season, the Hilltoppers made a late-season push and reached the championship game of the Heartland Conference before falling to top-seeded St. Mary’s.

Penders began his Hilltopper coaching career with two-straight 40-win seasons. The team also won the Heartland Conference his first two seasons at the helm. In 2007, he led the Hilltoppers to a 43-15 record and the school’s first-ever Heartland Conference Championship. St. Edward’s also qualified for the NCAA Regional Tournament for the first time in school history. For his efforts, Penders was selected as Heartland Conference Coach of the Year.

Prior to St. Edward’s, Penders served as the first-base coach for University of Texas Head Coach Augie Garrido and the 2006 Longhorns squad. He had previously served on the UT coaching staff for two seasons (1999 and 2000) with the team reaching the NCAA Division I College World Series in 2000.

Between his assignments at UT, Penders spent time as an assistant at Galveston College during the 2001 season and from 2002 to 2005 at San Jacinto College. During three of his four years at San Jacinto, the team qualified for the Junior College World Series, with a third-place finish in 2002 and second-place honors in 2003 and 2004. He has coached five All-Americans, one Rhodes Scholar, one Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner and 80 players who have been drafted by professional baseball.

Penders was a four-year letterman for Wake Forest and a team captain his senior year. Primarily a third baseman, he was voted to the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Academic Team three times from 1994 to 1996. In summer 1995, he played for the Hyannis Mets in the Cape Cod League. After Wake Forest, he played professionally for the Richmond Rousters in the Frontier League in Indiana.

Baseball is in Coach Penders’ blood, giving him accomoplished role models. In his prep days, Penders was a two-time all-state shortstop at East Catholic High School in Manchester, Conn. He played there for his father, Jim Penders, who was the National High School Coach of the Year in 1996. Rob’s brother, Jim, currently serves as the head baseball coach for the University of Connecticut, where both his father, and his uncle, Tom Penders (long-time men’s basketball coach), were members of the 1965 Huskies College World Series team.

Penders earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Wake Forest University and a master’s degree in education from the University of Texas. He and his wife, Christy, have a daughter, Emily Hannah, and a son, Jack Robert. They live in Austin. 

DAVE WOOD

Assistant Coach
Phone: 512-428-1053
Send me an e-mail

Dave Wood begins his first season as assistant coach of the St. Edward’s baseball team. He will work primarily with the Hilltopper pitching staff.

Wood comes to the Hilltop after spending three years in the Kansas City Royals minor league organization. In 2007, he was a member of Royals in the Arizona Fall League where he won Player of the Year for the Royals. The 2008 season saw him split time between the Wilmington Royals and the Burlington (N.C.) Royals, where he was a team captain. His final season he played for the Class A Burlington (Iowa) Royals where he helped lead them to the championship series of the Midwest League.

A native of Long Island, N.Y., Wood began his collegiate career at Stony Brook University where he was named to the Freshman All-America East Team. After transferring to Temple (Texas) College, he was named second-team all-region as both a pitcher and first baseman. His final two seasons, Wood played at Texas State where he was second-team all-conference on the 2007 Southland Conference Champion Bobcats.

On the coaching side of things, Wood has been a coach and instructor for six different teams in the Bowie Baseball Academy.

Wood holds a bachelors degree in Applied Arts and Sciences with a coaching emphasis from Texas State.

Wood is married to the former Randi Warren and the couple lives in Kyle, Texas.