Great Lakes Baseball Academy is excited to welcome Paul Weidner back to our academy as our new Executive Director. Weidner will be responsible for overseeing the administration, programs and strategic plan of Great Lakes Baseball Academy.
“Great Lakes has always had an incredible place in my life, and to be coming back feels like home. Since I left 3 years ago, this organization has gone to a completely different level. I cannot wait to be a part of taking it even higher in all aspects. The experience that families and players have come to expect is first class, and that will continue to be elevated.”
Weidner played collegiately for Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. During his 4 years in college, Weidner began coaching teams for Great Lakes and became a constant figure in the organization. He immediately began his collegiate coaching career on the Bethel staff following his graduation in 2015 and was on staff there from 2015-2018. Weidner was also hired as the full time Director of Baseball Operations for Great Lakes in 2016, a role that he served in before landing a spot as an assistant coach in the Cape Cod Summer Collegiate League, the premier summer collegiate league in the country, in the summer of 2018. That led to a spot as an assistant coach at Creighton University in Omaha, NE beginning in the Fall of 2018.
While at Creighton, the Blue Jays enjoyed immediate success in 2019, winning the Big East Regular Season Championship as well as the Big East Tournament Championship and earning a bid to an NCAA regional. In the regional, the Blue Jays eliminated defending National Champion Oregon State on their home field and would lose in the regional final to eventual national runner-up, the University of Michigan. Creighton’s staff would earn Big East Coaching Staff of the Year honors that season and would see 6 players drafted in that year’s MLB draft, with another player signing an undrafted free agent contract after the draft. The following two seasons would see a COVID shortened year followed by another successful 2021 campaign that led to a 2nd place finish in the Big East Regular Season and a birth in the Big East Tournament.
Weidner then left Creighton following the 2021 season to take a position as the head coach of the Rochester Honkers in prestigious Northwoods Collegiate Summer League. At the conclusion of his summer with the Honkers, he will come on board full time once again at Great Lakes.
Weidner, his wife Olivia, and their son Brooks live in New Brighton, MN.
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