Mark Kingston   |   AA

Mark Kingston currently is the Associate Head Coach at Tulane University

During his tenure with the Green Wave, Kingston has coached nine Major League draft picks, helped five players earn All-Conference USA honors, and Tulane has posted school Top 10 marks in batting average, hits, doubles, home runs, total bases, slugging percentage and stolen bases.

Kingston has experienced success at every stop of his collegiate playing and coaching career - helping the North Carolina Tar Heels advance to the College World Series as a player in 1989, and as an assistant coach for the 2001 Miami Hurricanes squad that won the national championship.

Kingston helped the Hurricanes win back-to-back regional championships in 2000 and 2001. The Hurricanes finished with top five school single-season marks in batting average, runs scored and slugging percentage, and led the nation with 228 stolen bases in 2001. During Miami's run to the 2001 national title, the 'Canes had an NCAA-best 17-0 run to end the season and set a College World Series record with 12.3 runs per game while hitting .373 as a team in Omaha.

Under Kingston's tutelage, two Hurricanes players earned All-America honors, three earned Freshman All-America recognition, rookie Kevin Howard was named the 2000 Baseball America National Freshman of the Year and 18 players went on to sign professional contracts.

Kingston spent the 1999 season at Illinois State where he helped the Redbirds set a school record for wins, runs scored, RBI, doubles, hits and walks while finishing second in school history in home runs, total bases and batting average. Fourteen of the 17 Redbird batters hit .300 or better as ISU improved from eighth to third in the Missouri Valley Conference offensive standings. He helped recruit the first Illinois State player since 1971 to earn All-America honors, and 10 players from that team eventually signed pro contracts.

Kingston began his coaching career at Purdue University in the fall of 1996 and worked his way up to the top assistant spot in 1998. Three of the top seven batting averages in Boilermaker history were recorded during his two years in West Lafayette, and Kingston helped Purdue place five position players on the All-Big 10 team after not posting any the year before his arrival.

A Collegiate Baseball Top 50 Prospect and a draftee of the New York Yankees out of Potomac High in Northern Virginia where he helped the team win the 1988 state championship, Kingston decided to play collegiately at North Carolina. As a junior, he received the Trippe Bourne "Most Dedicated Player" Award for his outstanding work ethic and leadership, and he was a team captain the following season. Kingston helped UNC win the ACC regular-season title and advance to the 1989 College World Series as a freshman, and he was instrumental in the team's championship run in the ACC Tournament and subsequent return trip to the NCAA Regionals as a sophomore.

After college, Kingston was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers and went on to play five years at the professional level. He played rookie ball for the Brewers for one year before going on to play for the Peoria (A), Daytona (high A) and Orlando Cubs (AA) in the Chicago Cubs organization. While a minor leaguer, he helped his teams win the 1995 Florida State League title, and participate in the 1996 Southern League playoffs.

He also wrote and produced two instructional videos for Championship Productions, "Keys to Consistent Hitting" and "Catching Drills and Fundamentals". He also was the only assistant coach chosen to write a chapter in "The Baseball Drill Book" produced by the American Baseball Coaches Association.

Kingston received his bachelor's degree in communications from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1995. He is married to the former Letitia Kelly, and the couple has two children, Kailyn Grace (3) and Cameron James