Van Ameyde began his collegiate playing career at Henry Ford Community College in 1991. In his first season, he helped lead the team to a regional championship.[3] He also played at Henry Ford in 1992 before moving on to the NCAA Division I ranks with the Detroit Titans. Van Ameyde spent two seasons at Detroit, earning all-conference and team MVP honors in his final season.
He graduated from Detroit in 1996 with a degree in communications.[2]
Coaching career
Van Ameyde began his coaching career as the head coach at Saint Mary's College. He helped start up the baseball program at Saint Mary's. Following two seasons at Saint Mary's, he moved on to help his coach his alma mater of Detroit. Over four seasons with the Titans, he spent time as both hitting coach and pitching coach, as well as recruiting coordinator. He left after the 2004 season, when the program was discontinued due to budget cuts.[4]
Following his tenure with Detroit, Van Ameyde spent three seasons as an assistant at Georgetown, serving as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. In 2008, he served as an assistant at Eastern Michigan, where he helped lead the team to the NCAA tournament. He also coached Matt Shoemaker, who current plays for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
After the 2008 season, Van Ameyde joined Eastern Michigan head coach Jake Boss on his staff at Michigan State. Over his six seasons with the Spartans, they made appearance in an NCAA Regional (2012), won a conference title (2011), and made three appearances in the Big Ten Conference tournament. In 2014, the Michigan State pitching staff achieved a 3.09 ERA, ranking second in the Big Ten and marking the 10th lowest single-season ERA in MSU history.[5]
On July 15, 2014, Van Ameyde returned to Eastern Michigan as head coach, his first head coaching position at the Division I level.[1] At EMU, Van Ameyde coached five All-MAC honorees, including two in 2017 after two in 2016, marking the first time that EMU had multiple players selected for all-conference honors since 2011–12.[5]
Coach Van Ameyde – 2021 Michigan State Baseball Season
On December 14, 2017, Michigan State baseball head coach Jake Boss Jr. announced the return of former Spartan assistant coach Mark Van Ameyde as the MSU pitching coach. Under Van Ameyde's guidance, Spartan pitchers have excelled, with four being selected in the last five Major League Drafts (Riley McCauley in 2018, Mitchell Tyranski and Indigo Diaz in 2019, and Mason Erla in 2021), and three others signing non-drafted free agent contracts (Mike Mokma in 2019, Sam Benschoter in 2021, and Kyle Bischoff in 2023).[5] Coach Van Ameyde completed his sixth season back on the Spartan bench and 12th overall in 2023.
Head coaching record
The following is a table of Van Ameyde's yearly records as an NCAA head baseball coach.
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
Conference regular season champion
Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
Division regular season champion
Division regular season and conference tournament champion
Conference tournament champion
