Head Baseball Coach

Bio

Jacob Kraft enters his first season leading the Blackburn College Baseball team.

Kraft comes to Blackburn from Crown College in Minnesota where he helped guide the Polars two two consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Championship Game appearances including a 2024 win that sent the team to the NCAA Tournament. During his two years as an assistant coach, he assisted in the development of one All-American, two Pre-Season All-Americans, five All-Region selections plus had 12 All-UMAC selections.

Coach Kraft coaches within the Edwardsville Tigers Club Baseball Organization while specifically coaching the 17U Select team. The Tigers travel around the Midwest competing against the top talent within HS baseball. 

Before Crown, Coach Kraft spent nearly three years within the club baseball circuit in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area coaching athletes who are currently competing within all levels across the NCAA. During this time, he was also the Head Varsity Coach at Rockford High School in Rockford, Minnesota. While at Rockford, the Rockets completed their best season in over a decade and finished above .500 within the conference for the first time in school history. After graduating from Augsburg University, Kraft spent 3 years operating his own small business providing lessons to athletes of all ages out of Forest Lake, Minnesota. 

While attending Augsburg, Kraft was a member of the baseball and football teams and earned First Team All-Conference his senior year of football. He completed his bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from Augsburg University in 2019 and holds a master's degree in Sports Coaching and Administration from Crown College.