Cloud County Community College Men's Baseball

Eric Gilliland became Cloud County Community College's 10th head baseball coach in June of 2016, taking over the reins of the T-Bird program after successful stints as an assistant coach at Garden City Community College and as a graduate assistant at Fort Hays State University. While at Cloud County, Gilliland has coached 58 players who have transferred to NCAA Division I schools and 140 players that have moved on to four-year programs. Former T-Bird pitcher Erik Sabrowski was drafted in the 2018 Major League Baseball draft and made his big-league debut for the Cleveland Guardians in 2024, including pitching in five postseason games. In addition, Gilliland has led the program to four consecutive NJCAA Region 6 Plains District Baseball Tournament appearances (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025), including reaching the tournament title game in 2025, the first in school history. The T-Birds have averaged 42 wins per season since 2022. In 2025, Cloud County established a new program record for wins in a single season with 48. Entering the 2026 season, Gilliland sits with 298 career wins at Cloud County. On March 1, 2025, Gilliland became the winningest coach in T-Birds history, surpassing Greg Brummett on Cloud County's all-time wins list, when his team knocked off No. 1-ranked Weatherford College, 7-6, in Weatherford, Texas. The 2025 season saw the T-Birds shatter multiple program records, including games played (65), at-bats (2021), hits (681), runs (603), singles (435), doubles (143), runs batted in (545), and highest-fielding percentage (.970). Cloud County finished the 2025 campaign with a 48-17 record, marking the team's third 40-plus win season in the last four years. The T-Birds also secured their fourth consecutive top-three finish in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference - West Division by going 25-7 in conference play and sweeping three of their four-game conference matchups. In addition to a record-breaking season on the field, Cloud County third baseman Nolan Freund was named an honorable mention All-American by the NJCAA Division I Baseball Committee. Freshman Cole Linton was tabbed as the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference - West Division Pitcher of the Year, and Cloud County placed ten recipients on the All-KJCCC West team and three on the All-Region 6 team. Gilliland graduated from Concordia High School in 2005 before beginning his collegiate playing career at Cloud County Community College. Gilliland spent two years as a two-way player for the T-Birds, earning time on the mound and in the outfield, and received Academic All-American honors. Gilliland received his Bachelor's degree in Health and Human Performance from Fort Hays State University in 2009 before obtaining his Master’s degree in Sports Administration from Fort Hays State University in 2011. Gilliland was a two-time All-Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) selection as a pitcher for the Fort Hays State Tigers and is currently ranked in the top ten in program history in strikeouts and innings pitched. Following his collegiate playing career, Gilliland played professionally for three years in Independent Baseball, amassing a career 3.95 ERA in 86 professional appearances on the mound for the Wichita Wingnuts of Wichita, Kansas, the Gateway Grizzlies of Sauget, Illinois, and the Midwest Sliders of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Gilliland is married to the former Ambria Menard, also from Concordia, Kansas. They are the parents of three sons, Jack (12), Kip (6), and Brooks (4) and one daughter, the late Hattie Jo Gilliland.  

Jolie Kasper was hired on July 11, 2017 as the Head Coach of the Cloud County Community College dance team. Kasper is a native of Clay Center and former Cloud County student in 1993-94. She brings a wealth of experience to the position as she has owned and operated her own dance school, The Dance Company, since 2004. With 20 years of experience working with high school and youth dancers, the step up to the college ranks is a challenge Kasper said she has wanted to take on.  “I’ve always wanted to work with the college age group,” said Kasper, who added that she’d like to have the Thunderbolts competition ready in Year One. “I’d like to see the team grow, perhaps double in size, and take them to competitions this year and get them introduced into that world.” Kasper is a graduate of Kansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting. She is married to Phil Kasper and the couple have two children: Jace and Jalyn.

Stephanie Downie was named the head cheer coach on January 31, 2019. Downie, who works as the Director of Auxillary Services at Cloud County, is a Concordia native who cheered four years in high school. She served as a team captain and was selected as an All-Star Cheerleader as a senior prior to briefly cheering at Fort Hays State University. Downie graduated with degree in Interior Design in 2013. Downie took over as the head coach of the Concordia High School cheer team in August of 2018 and spent two seasons as a coach for Concordia Youth Cheer prior to that. She is married to Derrick Downie, who serves as a volunteer assistant coach.

Zach Gerch joined the Cloud County Community College baseball program as its hitting coach in 2021. He is also responsible for implementing the team's strength and conditioning and nutrition program. During his first four seasons with the T-Birds, Gerch has coached 20 All-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference hitters, sent 16 hitters to NCAA Division I schools, and has set new program bests in wins (48), hits (681), runs (603), runs batted in (545), singles (435), doubles (143) and home runs (82). In 2025, with Gerch at the helm of the offense, Cloud County had eleven players finish the year with a .300 or better batting average including Nolan Freund (.422), Luke Clayton (.415), David Simmons (.387), Joey Marino (.373), Noah Konings (.363), Matthew Evans (.356), Kaden Budke (.339), Austin Coyle (.319), Lucas Laukkanen (.317), Eric Bradicich (.316), and Cam Macleod (.308). The T-Birds led all Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference schools in home runs, doubles and extra-base hits, and the team was second in the conference in runs and runs batted in. Under Gerch's guidance, sophomore Nolan Freund became Cloud County's all-time and single-season hits leader after becoming the first T-Bird in program history to tally 100 hits in a season. Freund finished the 2025 season as one of just two players in NJCAA Division I Baseball to record at least 100 hits. The product of Kingman, Kansas, Freund led all Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference offensive players in hits (100) and total bases (152), on his way to being named First-Team All-KJCCC West and First-Team All-Region 6. Along with Freund, Matthew Evans received First-Team All-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference - West Division honors in 2025. Sophomore catcher Cam Macleod was named to the conference second team, while sophomore outfielder Austin Coyle and freshman middle infielder Joey Marino earned honorable mention conference honors. Gerch also helps coach Cloud County's catchers, and has developed two NCAA Division I catchers during his four-year tenure - Macleod (Washington State) and Ty Wevers (Canisius College). Macleod was named to the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Gold Glove baseball team in 2025. Behind the plate, Macleod had a .997 fielding-percentage with 329 put outs and 26 assists with 10 runners caught stealing. Offensively, Macleod led the T-Birds with 13 home runs on the season while hitting .308 on the year, with 45 hits, 48 runs scored and 51 runs batted in. Prior to Cloud County, Gerch spent four seasons as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Frontier Community College in Fairfield, Illinois. He also spent four years as a volunteer/graduate assistant coach at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Gerch played baseball as a catcher at Southwestern Iowa Community College and Ottawa University. Gerch is married to his wife, Heather, and the couple have three children: Maddux (4), Amelia (4), and Lucy (1).  

Michael Parr joined the Cloud County baseball coaching staff in the summer of 2021.  Prior to joining the CCCC baseball staff, Parr spent 12 seasons as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. While serving as pitching coach, Parr was responsible for structuring daily practice plans for the pitching staff as well as developing in-season and off-season development plans for all pitchers. Parr would also assist with the development of the strength and conditioning program for Sinclair CC and helped the Tartan Pride to a pair of NJCAA Division II Baseball World Series appearances including a third-place finish in 2016. During his 12-year tenure as pitching coach, Sinclair would win nine Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) titles and finish as NJCAA Region 12 Runner-up on three occasions in addition to the two World Series appearances.   A total of 44 pitchers would commit to NCAA Division I scholarship offers under the guidance of Parr, with eight different pitchers being named OCCAC Pitcher of the Year. Parr would also develop one NJCAA Division II All-American pitcher and have seven pitchers that were either drafted by Major League Baseball teams or signed to professional contracts.