Preparing to enter his first season at the helm of the Loyola Marymount baseball program, head coach Nathan Choate announced his coaching staff today as he brings in former USC associate head coach Matt Curtis and former Cal State Northridge assistant coach Tony Asaro to join the Lions coaching staff in 2019-20. Curtis will run the offense, while Asaro will serve as the recruiting coordinator. Additionally, both coaches will work with the hitters.
 
"I'm extremely excited and fortunate to have both Matt and Tony on our staff," said Choate. "I want to thank Craig (Pintens) and the administration for providing the resources to get the staff in place. Both Matt and Tony have been to Omaha and have a track record of success. Both have an excellent reputation in the baseball community for their ability to recruit and develop. We are excited to get started this fall."

Curtis has been attributed with much of the offensive success experienced by the Trojans during his tenure. In 2015, the Trojans finished with a .296 batting average—the team's highest since 2002, and ranked among the Pac-12 leaders in multiple offensive categories.
Prior to coming to the Trojans, Curtis was the head coach at Cal State Northridge from 2011-13, where he helped turn around the Matador program, leading them to the program's best record since 2002.
 
Curtis began coaching at his alma mater, where he served as an assistant coach for a Fresno State program that won five consecutive Western Athletic Conference titles, made five NCAA tournament appearances and won the 2008 College World Series. A four-year letter-winner as a player at FSU, Curtis can be found on numerous program top-ten lists including games played (215), at-bats (761), hits (235), runs (144), doubles (52), walks (116), and RBIs (127). During his time as a Bulldog student-athlete, his baseball team competed in four NCAA Regionals and won two WAC Championships in 1993 and 1995. A two-time WAC Scholar-Athlete Award recipient (1994-95), Curtis also earned WAC Academic-All Conference and WAC All-Conference Catcher accolades shortly after the 1995 season concluded.

After his stellar career with the Bulldogs, Curtis was drafted in the 28th round of the 1996 MLB First Year Players Draft by the then California Angels. In his inaugural season as a professional, Curtis set a single season Midwest League record for doubles and was named to Baseball America's Minor League All-Star Team. During his five seasons of professional baseball, he received the Ray Perry Award - given to Northern California's most outstanding first year minor league player - and reached the Double-A level as a member of both the Anaheim Angels and Cleveland Indians organizations.

Curtis graduated from Fresno State with a Bachelor's degree in accounting in 1998 and earned his Master's degree in business administration in 2001, also from Fresno State. For his accomplishments and successes earned as a student-athlete and coach at Fresno State, Curtis was selected in the 2003 class of inductees into the Fresno State Baseball Hall of Fame.

In just two years, Asaro has made a major impact on the Matadors' recruiting and catching core. He helped the Matadors record their most Big West Conference wins since 2013 with 13. Asaro worked closely with Matador catcher Trevor Casanova, a Johnny Bench Award Semifinalist. Casanova went on to be drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 13th round of the 2018 MLB First-Year Player Draft.

In 2017, Asaro served as the volunteer assistant coach at the University of Utah and worked with the outfielders along with the team's offense. 

Prior to Utah, Asaro completed two stints as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at El Camino College. Along with running the offense and overseeing the catchers, Asaro implemented defensive strategies. In his first stint with the Warriors from 2010-12, El Camino won the South Coast Conference Championship in 2010 and advanced to the state finals.
 
Asaro began his collegiate coaching career at Tennessee as a volunteer assistant coach from 2013-14 and the director of operations and camp coordinator in 2015. While with the Volunteers, the team advanced to the Southeastern Conference Tournament for the first time in seven years in 2014. Tennessee would return back to the tournament the following season. The Volunteers also produced recruiting classes ranked in the Top 25 in each year from 2013-15. 

Asaro played college baseball at Pepperdine in 2006 before transferring to UC Irvine from 2007-09. The Anteaters advanced to the College World Series for the time in program history in 2007 and reached the Super Regionals a year later. Asaro helped UC Irvine win the 2009 Big West Conference title. In 2008, Asaro was selected in the 47th round of the MLB First-Year Player Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Asaro earned a degree in sociology from UC Irvine in 2009. A year later, Asaro received his master's degree in sports science with an emphasis in coaching.