Jim Bray enters his first season at Utah State as an assistant coach in 2027.
Bray joins the USU staff after most recently spending three seasons as an assistant coach at UTSA. There, under head coach Vann Stuedeman, he helped lead a rebuild of the Roadrunners’ program which had won just eight wins the previous season as the team improved each of his three seasons. Most recently in 2026, the team won 24 games, their most since 2015. Three UTSA players earned all-conference accolades, including pitcher Arlette Hernandez, who was named a D1Softball.com Freshman All-American.
Bray played a significant role in the Roadrunners’ 2025 improvements, as the team posted remarkably better numbers in batting average (24.5% increase), on base percentage (13.2% increase), hits (25% increase), runs scored (21% increase), RBIs (21% increase), total bases (14% increase) and stolen bases (44% increase) from the previous year. UTSA achieved a 5-0 start that season, the best in program history. In 2024, he witnessed a seven-win improvement during the team’s transition into the American Conference.
Prior to his time at UTSA, Bray spent a season as an assistant softball and strength and conditioning coach at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. There, he helped OLLU to a 51-8 record in the 2022 season, including a 36-game winning streak. OLLU was crowned Red River Athletic Conference champions, going undefeated in the regular season before winning the league's tournament and appearing in the NAIA World Series. Records were broken in nearly every offensive category, and the squad landed eight all-conference players, five of whom went on to make all-region and two All-Americans. Additionally, Bray and OLLU were selected for the NAIA Region 2 Coaching Staff of the Year.
Bray had two stints at Division-III Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, first serving as an assistant for baseball and women’s basketball from 2014-17, then as an assistant for softball in 2021. During his time with the softball team, he helped the squad go 28-12 and win the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference’s regular season title while boasting the league’s pitcher and player of the year.
Between his stops at Transylvania, Bray was the assistant softball coach and associate head coach of strength and conditioning at George Fox University from 2017-21. There, he was charged with recruitment, administrative duties, field maintenance and practice planning. He coached 19 all-conference players and eight all-region performers there, with the team leading DIII in home runs all four seasons. He also oversaw strength and conditioning efforts for baseball, men's/women's tennis, and women's lacrosse while managing game day duties for soccer, basketball, and swimming.
From 2011-14, Bray worked his first collegiate coaching job for his alma mater Lewis and Clark College, where he worked as an assistant baseball and women's basketball coach. With basketball, he was a part of three NCAA Tournament teams as the Pioneers made trips in 2011, 2012, and 2013 in three 20-plus win seasons. He was the primary recruiting coordinator for the baseball team, leading a total overhaul and increasing roster size from 19 to 40 while decreasing error rates by 30%.
Bray also spent time as a head baseball coach for the 14U Lake Oswego Junior Baseball team, maintaining a .607 winning percentage.
As a student-athlete, Bray was a two-year starter at Lewis and Clark College, where he attended after transferring from Clackamas Community College. Bray walked on at the junior college and earned a scholarship as well as second-team all-region honors. Additionally, he was selected as a team captain at both schools.
