After leading the Mavericks to a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship as the program’s interim head coach in 2019, Erik Kozel is now in his second overall season as the Mavericks’ permanent dugout boss.
No stranger to the program, Kozel served as an assistant coach for the Mavericks for six years before being promoted to the interim head coach roll in September, 2018 and then being announced as the official head coach in July, 2019 after a nation-wide search.
In 2019, the Mavericks went 45-11 overall winning their fourth consecutive RMAC Championship and qualifying for their fourth straight NCAA Tournament. They also led the country in scoring for the second consecutive season putting up nearly eight runs per game and were amongst the nation’s top 10 in six different statistical categories.
Kozel had also been a critical part of the Mavericks’ back-to-back RMAC Regular Season and Championship winning teams in 2017 and 2018 in his two years as the program’s top assistant. In those two years, the Mavericks posted combined a 96-13 (.881) record. The Mavericks also won RMAC titles in 2014 and 2016 when Kozel was on the staff.
In his assistant coaching role, Kozel worked primarily with the catchers and outfielders and served as the hitting coach.
That coaching certainly payed off as the Mavericks set numerous Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference records while earning a No. 1 spot in the national rankings for seven straight weeks in 2018 after getting out to 37-0 start. They also won the NCAA Division II team statistical titles for batting average (.398), doubles (2.55 per game) and scored 508 runs, the most of any collegiate softball team in the country (all divisions).
Prior to entering the coaching world, Kozel was a member of the baseball team at CMU in 2012 and 2013 and earned all-region honors at catcher his senior season. Prior to playing at CMU he led San Joaquin Delta College to the 2011 California Junior College State Championship.
After graduating from CMU in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in health and fitness promotion, he played three seasons of independent professional baseball.
He spent the 2013 and 2014 seasons in the Pecos League with the Taos Blizzard and Santa Fe Fuego. He led the Fuego to the 2014 Pecos League Championship and was named league MVP, MVP of the championship series and was the starting catcher in the 2014 Pecos League All-Star Game.
Kozel spent the 2015 season in the Canadian-American League of Professional Baseball as an outfielder with the Garden State Grays.
Kozel lives in Grand Junction with his Chesapeake Bay Retriever Moose.
