Steve Chatham, who was hired at UNLV in August, begins his first year as an assistant softball coach at UNLV. Chatham, a former assistant baseball coach at the College of Southern Nevada and director of baseball operations at UNLV, returns to Las Vegas after serving as a volunteer baseball coach at Loyola Marymount University the past three seasons.
At LMU, Chatham helped guide the Lions baseball program to no less than 24 wins in each of his three seasons beginning with the 2011 campaign. Aside from serving as the first base and outfield coach, he assisted with hitting and bunting. In addition, he helped with recruiting and the placement of players in summer leagues, coordinated all camps and clinics, managed the indoor batting facility and oversaw equipment and travel needs.
Besides earning his undergraduate degree in sociology at UNLV in 2005, Chatham also has prior ties to the athletics department. He spent five years (2006-10) as an assistant coach for current Rebel baseball head coach Tim Chambers when both were on staff at CSN in nearby Henderson. At CSN, Chatham served as the pitching coach in 2006 before taking over hitting and bench coach duties in 2007-10. The Coyotes[apos] best season occurred in 2010 when the two-year institution finished third at the JUCO World Series behind the play of Bryce Harper, the first overall pick by the Washington Nationals in the 2010 MLB Draft. The team earned a berth in the JUCO World Series after winning the Western District championship following its second consecutive Region XVIII title and third straight first-place finish in the Scenic West Athletic Conference.
After Chambers made the crosstown move from CSN to UNLV, Chatham became the director of baseball operations for the fall of 2010 where he handled the day-to-day functions of the program.
Chatham began his foray into coaching as an assistant coach at The Bishop School in La Jolla, Calif., from 1999-2000. He then moved north to Long Beach and worked at the All-American Baseball Academy where he provided group and individual instruction in the summer of 2000. He headed to Las Vegas in the fall of 2004 to work at the Southern Nevada Baseball Association through the summer of 2010.
As a freshman at Cal State Fullerton in 1995, Chatham was a member of the national championship Titans baseball team. In his four years at Fullerton (1995-98), he hit .300 or better in each season and finished with a .339 batting average behind 195 career hits. He started 139 games and played in a total of 228 contests and scored 154 runs and knocked in 126 RBI.
Chatham became a professional baseball player in 1999 in the Boston Red Sox organization as a pitcher, but an elbow injury during Spring Training curtailed his career.
