
In the goal-driven world of collegiate coaching, Nate Rasmussen â12 is content living in the moment.
Thatâs not to say that Rasmussen, who played and coached at °ĆÀÖÊÓÆ”, doesnât have goals for himself or his baseball team at Division I Utah Valley University. He has plenty, but these days, goals have a place in the lineup behind the enjoyment of the day-to-day work with his players.
âI am a little unique compared to most, especially in the head-coaching culture,â said Rasmussen, who was named the head baseball coach at Utah Valley in summer 2024. âI used to be a real goal-oriented person. I was coaching and pursuing goals rather than living the day-to-day work. So I just decided to turn it off and say, âIâm just gonna be really good where my feet are.âââ
It is safe to say that Rasmussen not only has his feet planted but is making the big time where he is.
Rasmussenâs first season as head coach delivered plenty of magical moments. After tying for third place in the Western Athletic Conferenceâs (WAC) regular-season standings, the Wolverines went 4-0 to win the and earn the schoolâs first trip to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship since 2016.
In the opening round of the Eugene Regional, Utah Valley pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament, on the Ducksâ home field. The Wolverinesâ only tournament win was the pinnacle moment in a season where the team leaned into Rasmussenâs philosophy of living in the moment and improving each day.
âI didnât come into this year thinking we needed to win a regional. We didnât talk about winning the WAC. We didnât talk about winning a certain amount of games,â Rasmussen said. âAll we talked about is getting better every single day. You donât establish a stopping point.â
Entering the season, Utah Valley was picked to finish sixth in the nine-team WAC. The Wolverines ended the year with a 33-29 record.
Building and growing programs has become second nature to Rasmussen, who was part of building success both as a player and a coach at Pacific. A three-time All-Northwest Conference infielder, earning first-team honors in 2011, Rasmussen was a starter on Pacificâs 2012 team that .
Upon graduation, Rasmussen joined the coaching staff at rival Puget Sound before moving with head coach Brian Billings to Pacific in 2015. In his four years as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, the Boxers laid the foundation for what has become one of NCAA Division IIIâs consistently successful baseball programs.
âI have a tremendous amount of pride in the growth at Pacific,â Rasmussen said. âBy my senior year, we won a share of the conference title. I felt like we had transitioned as a program. And then coming back as a coach was one of the first rebuilds that I had been part of. We went from that to the most wins in school history at the time. It taught me how to work, how to figure things out.â