A recent addition to the ISG “Go To” Clinicians roster, Todd Naskedov has shown a great ability to teach coaches some of the newest pro-baseball techniques without making them overly analytical or difficult to understand. He is rapidly becoming a coaches favorite and has presented in Ireland, Norway, and the Republic of Georgia on the Black Sea.

He played one year of college ball at Lower Columbia College before concluding that he did not have the talent necessary to keep playing long-term. He transferred to Western Washington University which no longer had a baseball program. Naskedov graduated in 2000 with a degree in education. Years later he also earned a master's degree in coaching and athletic administration.

Naskedov's coaching career has included high school, college, minor league, and international stints. He worked for major league baseball as an international envoy coach in the summers of 2001 & 2004; the former in the United Kingdom and the latter in the Netherlands. He started high school coaching in the early 2000s as the head coach for the Shelton (WA) High School Highclimbers. He moved to Amphitheater High School in Tucson, AZ in 2002 to take over that program. He built the program up over four years and the team played in the 2006 state championship game. Naskedov stayed for another two seasons before moving on to Pima Community College as the pitching coach in 2009-2010. Following that gig, he was the pitching coach for the Cowlitz Black Bears in 2010 & 2011. Cowlitz is a member of the collegiate summer West Coast League. Naskedov returned to high school coaching in 2013-2014 as the pitching coordinator for McKinney Boyd High School. He completed his high school coaching travels as the head coach for the Forest Grove High School Vikings in 2015-2016.

In 2018 the Houston Astros hired Naskedov as their training complex pitching coordinator and rehabilitation pitching coach. He stayed in the latter position through the 2020 season. Naskedov was the pitching coach for the Fayetteville Woodpeckers of the new Low-A East League in 2021. Naskedov moved to the Cincinnati Reds' organization as pitching coach of the Daytona Tortugas in 2022, Dayton Dragons in 2023, and Chattanooga Lookouts in 2024.

Credit Baseballreference.com

Ryan McGinnis has been a baseball coach for thirty years and an athletic director for eighteen. He coached for four years at Xavier University (OH) before returning to Wisconsin to coach high school baseball at Oshkosh North and currently at Kimberly High School in Kimberly, Wisconsin. 

His teams have won over 440 games, fourteen FVA Conference championships (including the first ever baseball FVA Conference championship at Oshkosh North HS), twenty regional championships, nine sectional championships and two state championships. Over forty players have garnered Academic All-State honors, more than two dozen players have been named to the All-State team, four players have been named the Gatorade State Player of the Year, and many players have continued their playing careers at the collegiate level. Three players played in the NCAA Super Regionals in 2024, the Sweet Sixteen of college baseball. Many of his former players are currently coaching high school or collegiate baseball and four former players are on his high school coaching staff.

Ryan served on the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association’s (WBCA) Executive Board from 2009-2015 serving as the President his final two years. He serves on the American Baseball Coaches Association’s (ABCA) Ethics Committee, and has been a member of the WIAA Baseball Advisory Board four different times. He has spoken at the ABCA National Convention, the Georgia Baseball Coach’s Clinic, internationally in Portugal and Spain and the Wisconsin’s Baseball Coaches Clinic several times.  He has been recognized as the District Coach of the Year three times, State Coach of the Year twice and Regional Coach of the Year twice. In addition, McGinnis served as an evaluator for Team USA Baseball’s 14U National Team.

In addition, McGinnis has run Baseball Hitting Leagues for youth the past 25 summers and a Winter Baseball Camp for youth the past 26 winters. He and his players have developed a Special Needs Baseball Camp that offers baseball instruction to students with special needs. His hobbies include collecting sports memorabilia, spending time with family, exercising, and reading/learning. Ryan and his wife Lori have four kids: Cal (22), Megan (20), Kate (18), & Brooke (17).

Tom O'Connell, the first high school coach to serve as President of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), recently retired after an illustrious 51-year career in baseball coaching. From 1969 to 2000, he led Pulaski High School in Milwaukee, where his teams achieved a record number of wins. Following his retirement from teaching, he spent 15 years at Catholic Central High School in Burlington, Wisconsin, where his teams won five state championships and reached the state quarterfinals for ten consecutive years. He later revitalized the baseball program at St. Francis High School.

O'Connell has been named National Coach of the Year three times and Midwest Coach of the Year four times. In 1995, he coached the USA Baseball North Team at the U.S. Olympic Festival, and he has been inducted into five Halls of Fame, including the ABCA Hall of Fame, where he was the 16th high school coach ever inducted.

A leader within the ABCA, O'Connell served as President in 2002 and now sits on its Board of Directors. He is also proud of his contributions to the ABCA Code of Ethics and his ongoing work in international baseball through ISG Baseball.

O'Connell has authored three books, including *Coaching Baseball: Techniques and Tactics*, and has been a frequent speaker at clinics across the U.S., Europe, and New Zealand. He has also scouted for several MLB teams and served as Lead Envoy Coach in Germany for Major League Baseball.

Beyond baseball, O'Connell has been actively involved with Milwaukee Irish Fest, where he has served on its Board of Directors. He and his wife Paula have three children and six grandchildren.