Prior to taking over as the Head Coach at PGS Baseball, Blake was the Executive Director and Head Baseball Coach of the Post Grad Program at Combine Academy in North Carolina. He has outstanding success in player development and placement of players into the collegiate level. Prior to Combine, he was the owner and founder of High Intent Training (H.I.T) in Nashville, Tennessee. H.I.T was developed into a popular indoor training facility in Tennessee, in 9 short months with over 200 clients.
Prior to opening H.I.T., Blake played for 3 different professional teams in 2 leagues. He played in both the American Association and the Frontier League. In College, Blake played at the Junior College and NCAA Division 1 levels. At Jackson State Community College, Blake hit 19 home-runs with 81 walks, while batting a very respectable .361 average. After Jackson State, Blake transferred to East Tennessee State University (ETSU) where he homered 20 times and accumulated 75 more walks. Immediately he was an All-Conference player, with a career .316 college average, Blake was a standout at every level that he played..
Blake graduated from ETSU with a B.A in interdisciplinary Studies.
Cameron "Jammer" Strickland - Assistant Baseball Coach
Prior to joining PGS, Coach Jammer was the Outfield/Hitting Coach for Combine Academy. Jammer's senior year at East Tennessee State University, he batted .306 with 5 HR and 44 RBI, while making many highlight plays in left field including one which aired on SportsCenter’s Top 10. Prior to ETSU, Jammer was ranked in the top 200 of JUCO Prospects during his freshman and sophomore year at Cleveland State.
Jammer was an assistant at South Doyle High School (Knoxville, TN) for 2 years, where he oversaw Hitting, Outfield, and Strength Development. He also spent the summers as head coach for Diamond Baseball Simcox Academy, a very well-known baseball facility/travel baseball organization in Tennessee that is operated by former University of Tennessee assistant Larry Simcox. He attended nationally ranked Farragut High School, where he was a two-time state champion. During his senior year at FHS, Jammer was a member of the All-State team and was named the District Player of the Year as well. He was a two-time Perfect Game Underclassman All-American and a member of the 2nd Team Louisville Slugger All-American Team.
Jammer graduated from ETSU, with a B.A. in Marketing.
As a player, Gavin signed with Western Oregon University out of high school (Bellarmine Preparatory) as a Pitcher/Infielder. He played two years and studied Communications. He earned GNAC Freshman of the Year (2010). Gavin then transferred to New Mexico Highlands University to finish out his collegiate baseball career, while also studying Sport Management. NMHU took 3rd in the NCAA DII South Central Regional and was only two wins away from the DII College World Series in Cary, NC. The team also finished with 43 wins. While in college, Gavin played summer ball in the West Coast League for the Kitsap BlueJackets and Bellingham Bells. He also played for two years after college for the Seattle Studs. With the Studs, he won the NBC National Championship in 2013. Gavin earned Pacific International League 1st Team (2x) 2012 and 2013 and also earned NBC World Series First Team (2012).
Gavin coached for two years for Rock Creek Select (14u). The team finished 48-18 record in 2017 and took 3rd place in the San Diego World Series. He previously coached at Colfax High School (Colfax, WA), Auburn Riverside High School (Auburn, WA), Barton College (Wilson, NC), Cleveland Community College (Shelby, NC) as the Pitching Coach and Recruiting Coordinator. Most recently with Combine Academy, he was the Pitching Coach and Director of College Placement. The team finished the season 31-8 and ranked 28th in the nation, with players committed to Clemson, Wake Forest, UNC Charlotte, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, UNC Wilmington, and very well known Juco's and D2 programs. While at Combine Academy, worked with Ian Walsh and trained minor league, major league, and high level college pitchers in the off season.
Coach Donohew brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his 17 years of collegiate coaching to Post Grad Sports. He has 12 years at the NCAA Division I level, and as a former head coach he has an abundance of expertise in all areas of collegiate coaching.
During his playing career at Georgetown College, he was a four year starter and NAIA College World Series Area 7 MVP and participated in the 1988 NAIA World Series helping team to a top five national ranking. His coaching career started at Georgetown College (NAIA) soon after he graduated. Coach Donohew then became an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator at Mount Union College (NCAA Div III). From there, his career began to take off as he moved up to the NCAA Div I level as an assistant coach at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He was promoted to head coach the following year.
The rest of his career includes positions at Division I schools of Kent State University, Cleveland State University and University of Akron. He later became an associate scout for the Houston Astros and then the Atlanta Braves organization. He then took a pitching coach position at South Mountain Community College which brought him to Phoenix Arizona. Since then, Coach went to work outside of baseball. However his passion for the game has brought him back to baseball as the Post Grad Sports Player Mentor, providing insight into the collegiate recruiting process.
Along the way, some of the notable players he has coached and/or recruited are:
Chris Bassit - 16th Round White Sox, Currently with Oakland
Andrew Brown -23rd Round Colorado Rockies
Steve Procner - 28th Round Baltimore Orioles
Devan Ahart - 16th Round Los Angeles Dodgers