Jared McDonald is in his first season as an assistant coach at Utah State in 2026.
In 2026, the Aggies excelled in extra-base hits, slugging the second most doubles in the Mountain West (82). Among their 48 home runs, they belted four grand slams across three separate players. They accumulated 53 hit by pitches, ranking 14th in the NCAA and setting a program record.
McDonald fostered Utah State’s largest ever graduating class of 10 seniors, including five among the pitching staff, and offensive standouts in Kya Pratt and Grace Matej. Thompson guided Pratt to her second-straight Mountain West All-Conference team selection, setting program top 10s in doubles (T-4th - 16), total bases (9th - 100), and hits (T-10th - 61) over the course of the season while Matej also jumped into the single-season leaderboards in home runs (T-4th - 12), RBIs (T-8th - 41), and total bases (T-8 - 101).
McDonald came to Logan after a decorated playing career, followed by a four-year stint as the coordinator of baseball/softball operations at the Illinois Bone & Joint Institute.
As a player, McDonald played two seasons of college ball for Pima CC in Tucson, Arizona, then one season at Arizona State. At Pima, he earned first-team All-American, all-region and all-conference honors in 2008, and was a recipient of the Rawlings Big Stick Award after hitting .467 with 16 doubles, five triples, 11 home runs and 41 RBIs in 53 games. He was selected in the 40th round by the Chicago Cubs in the 2008 Major League Baseball draft, before transferring to Arizona State for his junior year.
At ASU, McDonald helped lead the Sun Devils to a third-place finish at the College World Series in 2009 as the team finished with a 51-14 overall record. McDonald played in 58 games as the team’s starting shortstop, and was drafted in the 21st round of the MLB draft following the year by the Chicago White Sox.
McDonald played from 2009-11 in the White Sox minor league system at the single-A level, before spending eight years in independent leagues for seven different teams. With the Rockland Boulders in 2016, he set the all-time minor league record for consecutive games on-base with 75.
Following his playing career, McDonald completed his bachelor’s degree in technological entrepreneurship & management at Arizona State University in 2019, and was named the coordinator of baseball/softball operations at the Illinois Bone & Joint Institute, where he was responsible for staffing, player evaluation, development and programming. He also worked as an account executive for the Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment Group in Chicago from 2022-23, dealing with corporate sponsorships and sales.