Odessa College Men's Baseball

Lay is entering his second year as the head coach at Odessa College.  The 2015 Odessa College Wranglers saw great success under Kurtis.  The Team finished the year with 32 wins and qualified for the Region V tournament for the first time in 5 years, the Wranglers also finished second in the region V tournament and were just one game away from making the World Series for the first time since 1995. Prior to his arrival at Odessa, Kurtis spent the previous three years as the head baseball coach at Frank Phillips College.  During his time with Frank Phillips he led the Plainsmen to their two most successful seasons in the history of the program.  In 2013, his second year as head coach of the program, the team finished with 35 wins on the season and clinched the third seed for the Region V baseball tournament.  In the 2014 season, Kurtis led his team to their first ever NJCAA national ranking, finishing the year once again with 35 wins and clinched the number two seed in the Region V tournament, just two games out of first. Not only did Kurtis lead his teams to success on the field, he led them to academic success as well.  In his three seasons at Frank Phillips, Coach Lay watched 21 of his former players graduate.  In the 2013-2014 school year, Kurtis graduated eleven sophomores and one freshman while completing the season with a 3.34 team GPA and nationally ranked 7th academically.  Kurtis began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Lubbock Christian University.  After he completed his masters he spent the following two springs as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Western Texas Junior College.  During the 2010-2011 school year, Kurtis served as the assistant coach at Cochise College in Douglas, Arizona before moving back to Texas to become the head coach at Frank Phillips College.  Kurtis is originally from Abilene, Texas and graduated from Abilene Cooper high school in 2002.  After high school Kurtis played baseball at North Central Texas College and Odessa College before returning back to Abilene to play for Coach Steve Coleman and the Hardin Simmons University Cowboys.  While at Hardin Simmons, Kurtis was a pitcher and designated hitter and achieved all region NABC honors during his junior and senior years.  Kurtis received his Bachelor of Science in Sports Fitness from Hardin Simmons University.  In the winter of 2008 he received his Master of Education from Lubbock Christian University.  Kurtis is happy to be reunited with Odessa College.