Coaching Staff

Drew Keehn

Baseball - Head Coach

E-Mail:  Drew Keehn

Yes, he is the newest member of the AWC Head Coaching fraternity, but no, Drew Keehn’s resume’ isn’t anything like a guy who's only been with the program less than a year.  Keehn has seen, played and coached on just about every level of baseball imaginable, and brought that experience to the Matadors in September of 2010 as AWC's first-ever full-time assistant baseball coach under John Stratton.  Keehn got his collegiate coaching start under another current ACCAC Baseball coach, Central Arizona’s Jon Wente, as an assistant for Wente’s Odessa Junior College Wrangler Baseball team for the 2005 season. He then spent that summer as the pitching coach for the Brainard Blue Thunder, part of a league made up of college players with NCAA eligibility trying to get their start in professional baseball. He then rejoined Wente at Central Arizona from 2006 through 2008 as CAC’s recruiting coordinator and pitching coach. Keehn helped lead the Vaqueros to a pair of Region I Championships, and his final recruiting class eventually reached the 2008 NJCAA World Series Championship Game. Keehn got his first opportunity to coach on the NCAA Division I level during 2008 as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. During his three-year tenure at LMU, Keehn oversaw a Lions’ pitching staff that finished 3rd in the conference in earned run average and allowed the fewest walks, and the staff helped take the Lions to a 2nd-place finish in the WCC in 2009. Keehn has also coached on the high school level as head coach at Ironwood Ridge High School in Tucson, and coached the Liberal Bee Jays (like the Brainard Blue Thunder, a semi-professional baseball program) in 2006 & 2007.
Before Keehn moved up into coaching, Drew enjoyed a playing career that saw him make it all the way to the pros. Keehn was a standout pitcher at Central Arizona College from 1992-94, which got the attention of scouts for the Colorado Rockies, who drafted him in the ’93 Major League Baseball Draft. Keehn spent three years in the Rockies’ organization, pitching on the Rookie & Class A levels. A native of Wyandotte, Michigan, Keehn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science at the University of Arizona, and a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Phoenix. Keehn and his wife of three years, former 6-time NJCAA All-American and 4-time NAIA All-American track & cross-country star athlete Aybuke Kizilarslan, welcomed their first child right after the start of the Matadors’ 2011 baseball season.

Kyle Carothers

Baseball - Assistant Coach

E-Mail:  Kyle Carothers

Drew Keehn was hired last year as the Matador Baseball team’s first-ever assistant coach because of his knowledge and versatility, so when Keehn moved up to the head coaching job, he looked for the same type of aspects for his replacement as lead assistant. He certainly found it in Kyle Carothers, who has had a chance over the past decade to learn just about every aspect of playing, training for and coaching America’s Game-on the high school, junior college, four-year university, and pro levels. After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington in 2002, Carothers followed up a star playing career at WC by starting his coaching career and staying in his home state as an assistant for the Missionaries for the 2003 season. He wasn’t done as a player, though, and spent the summer of 2003 playing 1st base in the Canadian Baseball League. Carothers made the trek to the Grand Canyon State for the first time after that, spending the next two years earning his coaching stripes on the high school level as an assistant coach (under Keehn) at Ironwood Ridge High School in Tucson. A longtime student of the fitness game, Carothers’ next move was to the four-year college level, where he spent the next two years as a fitness coordinator and personal trainer at the University of Arizona. The spring of 2006 saw Carothers return to the high school level as a hitting instructor for the Sahuaro High School varsity baseball team in Tucson. His first taste of head coaching was the next two summers at the Wilkinson Academy in Lynnwood, Washington, coordinating all on-field activities. Carothers’ junior college career began in 2006, when he returned to the Grand Canyon State to be the Strength & Conditioning Coach at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Carothers spent four years working with the Coyotes’ baseball, basketball, volleyball and golf players before jumping at the chance to return to coaching by heading to Yuma.
While at CGCC, Carothers continued to work toward his Master’s Degree, and earned it in 2008 from Arizona State University in the field of Exercise and Wellness. Carothers and his wife, Brianna, are happy to be new residents of Yuma, and dote over their two-year-old son, Peter.

 Jordan McCavitt

Baseball - Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator

E-Mail:  Jordan McCavitt

The new-look Matador Baseball coaching staff in 2011 was rounded out in August of 2011 with the addition of Jordan McCavitt as the recruiting coordinator. Like his new boss, Drew Keehn, McCavitt has coached on just about every level, and he’s done it all in a short amount of time. As a player, McCavitt came to prominence in one of the most talent-rich baseball states, California, starring at Monterey Peninsula College and San Diego City College for a season each. While at SDCC, he impressed the coaches at Oklahoma Baptist University enough to earn a scholarship to OBU, and he rewarded them by leading them to the NAIA Regionals and a top-10 national ranking during his senior season. He was also named All-Region VI and All-Sooner Athletic Conference by setting the school record with 33 relief appearances in a single season. McCavitt then turned professional, spending two years playing in the Continental Baseball League, making the All-Star team both years. In fact, during the last 4 years of his playing career, McCavitt had a won-loss record of 22-9 while picking up 8 saves. While he was a pro player, though, he was also setting the wheels in motion to begin his coaching career, spending his off-seasons coaching on various levels. He spent the spring of 2009 as an assistant coach at Scotts Valley High School in California and the spring of 2010 as the JV & freshman pitching coordinator at Mount Carmel High School in San Diego. Just within the last year, McCavitt became a coach full-time and moved up to the college ranks, spending the spring as an assistant at Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City, and the summer as the pitching coach for the Mountain Collegiate League Champions, the Cheyenne Grizzlies in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Along the way, McCavitt earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Oklahoma Baptist University; and just earned his Master’s Degree in Leadership this past fall.

Baseball - Assistant Coach

The names and faces of the Matador Baseball coaching staff may have changed, but the man who built the program from scratch continues to be a constant in the Matador dugout. It was nearly a half-century ago (48 years, to be exact) when a young Jack Watson first stepped onto the AWC campus to become a college head baseball coach for the first time for the brand-new Matador Baseball program. Watson began his AWC tenure in 1964 as a professor, and then one year later became the school’s athletic director and first-ever head baseball coach. Under Jack’s direction over the next decade, the Matadors’ athletic programs flourished, especially the football team, which went to six straight bowl games, and won the National Championship in 1972. Jack’s successful run overseeing the department ended in 1975, when he stepped down to move into the private sector. Watson was just as successful there as he was on campus, spending the better part of the last four decades in the insurance industry running his own business. Things came full circle for Watson and the Matadors in 2004 when John Stratton asked him to come back as an assistant baseball coach, and he begins his 8th season in that position. Before coming to Yuma, Jack was a baseball star-first at North Phoenix High School and then on a baseball scholarship at the University of Arizona. Jack then began his coaching career while attending graduate school at the U of A, coaching the Wildcats’ freshman baseball team. He then moved on to coach Glendale High School to the Arizona State Baseball Championship in 1959. Watson’s legacy at AWC is indelibly etched-thanks to the Jack Watson Scholarship, which was formed 4 years ago by a large group of Watson’s former players to honor him, and will give future baseball student-athletes a chance to get an education in Jack’s name. Jack and the love of his life, Marlee, are celebrating their 54th year of marriage, and still dote on their two children and two grandchildren.