Sept. 18, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Andre Butler has joined the Penn State baseball coaching staff as a volunteer assistant, head coach Rob Cooper announced Friday.
At Penn State, Butler will help with the team's hitters and work with the outfielders.
"We are excited to welcome Andre to Penn State and the Penn State baseball program," said Cooper. "He is a smart, young, energetic, coach who will make an enormous impact on our student-athletes."
Butler, a Philadelphia-area native, joins the staff after spending the previous season as an assistant coach at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, where he worked with the hitters, outfielders, and base runners. DeSales baserunners stole 115 bases in 2015 en route to a 19-2 conference record.
"As a Pennsylvania native, I am honored and excited to represent Penn State University on the field and off," said Butler. "I am looking forward to beginning my new role here with a tremendous coaching staff and talented group of players."
For the 2013 and 2014 seasons, Butler served as an assistant at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked primarily with the outfielders. Butler helped the Quakers to a 15-5 Ivy League record in 2014, which was their best Ivy League record since 2003.
Prior to his stint at Penn, Butler spent one season as an assistant coach at Swarthmore College.
Butler graduated from Eastern University (St. Davids, Pa.) in 2012 with a degree in secondary education, where he was also a four-year starter on the baseball team. He finished his career with a .310 batting average is ranked second all-time in school history with 109 runs scored and fourth all-time with 143 hits. He also finished with a career on base percentage of .416. Butler finished his senior season with 51 hits in 40 games.
Butler has been active in the Philadelphia-area community. He started his own tee ball league in West Philadelphia called the "Jackie Robinson West Philly League" for boys and girls ages eight and under. The league is affiliated with the Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy and its purpose is to promote baseball in the inner city.
Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State baseball teams during the 2015-16 season. Follow the team on Twitter at @PennStateBASE and on Facebook at http://facebook.com/pennstatebaseball.