Laughlin named Dutch assistant baseball coach
PELLA—A veteran assistant coach with Iowa ties, Robby Laughlin, has been added to the Central College baseball coaching staff.
Laughlin comes to Central after two seasons as the head assistant coach at Bryant and Stratton College, a junior college in Wisconsin. Serving as the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator at Bryant and Stratton, Laughlin also held a similar position at Dawson Community College in Montana for the 2021 season. Laughlin’s first collegiate coaching stop came at his alma mater, Northwestern College in Orange City, where he was an assistant baseball coach while also serving as an admissions counselor for the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Laughlin was high school teammates with former Central shortstop Garrett Saunders, who went on to play in the Atlanta Braves organization
“Getting to know him over through years has been awesome,” coach Adam Carey said. “I’ve gained a lot of respect for what he’s done in the college game. His demeanor and the way he coaches and the level of care he has for the players has really stood out to me throughout this process. He’s a great fit for Central and what we are doing here.”
A seasoned collegiate summer league coach, Laughlin had stops with the Wheat City Whiskey Jacks in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the Omaha Red Raiders in Nebraska and the Ocean Forest O’s in South Carolina. He also worked with Perfect Game in Florida in the summer of 2018 and with his old Van Buren County High School team in 2018 and 2019.
“The way he has developed as a coach in those summer leagues is a big deal,” Carey said. “It was a chance for him to be a head coach and do some additional recruiting.”
Laughlin played three seasons at Northwestern following a high school career at Van Buren County High school in southeast Iowa. He was a utility infielder who earned three varsity letters, graduating with a degree in sport management in 2018. He served as a student coach for his senior season in 2018 after an injury. He earned a master’s degree in athletic administration/coaching in 2020 from Concordia University – Irvine (Calif.).
