Joe Perez begins his first season as the Cougars Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator and will serve as the infield coach and assist with the hitters after being hired by Nathan Choate in June, 2023. Perez comes to WSU already having worked with Choate for four years during his time at Grand Canyon University. Perez spent the past eight seasons as the Associated Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Central Arizona College, one of the premier junior college programs in the country, where he worked with the infielders and hitters. Perez also won the 2021 ABCA National Assistant Coach of the Year and helped the Vaqueros to a pair of Junior College National Championships. 

When did you know you wanted to get into coaching?  

 "My last year playing at Jamestown, I finished playing and didn't know what I wanted to do, and I knew I had to go back for an extra semester to finish my degree and my coach at the time asked me if I'd be interested in being a grad assistant. I took him up on it and quickly fell in love with it. 

What is the best coaching memory you have?  

 "I was fortunate enough to have a bunch of good players and coaches at Central Arizona and we were able to win two national championships." 

What have you taken from the championship experience you have?  

"The thing I'm going to bring from that experience is that in college baseball anyone can win on any given day. At points in that season, we felt pretty low, we didn't know if we were going to make the post season. Then you fast forward a month and were celebrating winning a national championship. No matter what anyone's saying on the outside, no one can control what's happening on that field." 

How have you grown as a coach?  

"I've got to see it done differently, I think any coach takes stuff and makes it their own. I've gotten to see three different head coaches do it at different levels, I've grown from the experience being underneath them, seeing what they value and seeing what they think helps playing winning baseball."   

What's your relationship with Coach Choate and how has it evolved over the years?  

"My first interaction with Coach Choate, I was trying to get my foot in the door coaching at the division one level and I must've called Coach Choate so many times that he accidently answered. He told me to come in and meet the head coach at the time at GCU Andy Stankiewicz and see if I could help in some way. Coach Choate really helped me get my foot in the door there and he's been coaching me tough ever since." 

When did Coach Choate contact you about joining the WSU baseball staff?  

"It was over the summer, I was on my way back from Santa Barba at a recruiting event. He had just been there and as I was driving back to Arizona; I had seen the news that he was announced as the coach. I shot him a text congratulating him and the next day he reached out to me and asked if I had any interest." 

What have you seen from this WSU infielder group so far?  

"I think the talent level here is really high, that's something I noticed right away. There are some serious athletes out there. The thing that surprised me the most is their passion to play defense, there's a few guys that really enjoy playing the defensive side of baseball." 

What has impressed you so far from this team? 

"How close this group is, it's really a brotherhood, they really care about each other here and it's a family-oriented environment."