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Kelly Nicholson, Field Manager
Loyola High School of Los Angeles
Hometown: Playa del Rey, Calif.

Back for his fourth summer at the helm, Nicholson looks to bring another Cape Cod League championship to Orleans in 2008.  He did just that in 2005 as the club’s first-year manager.

Nicholson was a four-year letterwinner and two-time all-conference selection during his pitching career at Loyola Marymount.  He graduated LMU with a degree in business administration and began a coaching career at Loyola High School in Los Angeles.  He became the head coach at Loyola High School and held that job for 11 years after leading the team to seven playoff appearances and a league title.

The Corona, Calif. native became the pitching coach at Loyola Marymount and led the Lions to a WCC title in all three of his seasons.  His efforts helped LMU reach the NCAA Regionals three consecutive seasons.  At LMU, he also was the pitching coach for current Cardinals assistant Brian Felten.

He went on to work with the pitching staff of Team USA in 2000 before joining the Cardinals as their pitching coach in 2001.  Under his direction, Orleans set a team record in 2002 with a team ERA of 2.11.  Nicholson’s pitchers helped the Cardinals win the league championship in 2003 for the first time in ten years and post a league-leading 397 strikeouts.  His staff led the CCBL in 2004 with a 2.37 ERA.

Nicholson became the Cardinals head man in 2005 and worked wonders for the team by leading it to a championship in his first season.  His incredible effort and record-setting 30-win season earned him the league’s Mike Curran Manager of the Year award.  Entering his eighth season with Orleans and fourth as the field manager, Nicholson has a career record of 79-57-2.

Chris Beck, Pitching Coach
Loyola High School of Los Angeles
Hometown: Playa del Rey, Calif.

Growing up in Whittier, Calif., Beck became an outstanding high school pitcher with a career ERA of 0.85. It earned him a baseball scholarship to Loyola Marymount where he led the Lions to back-to-back WCC championships and a regional berth at Stanford. He played and coached for former Team USA and current LMU head coach Frank Cruz. 

After completing his degree in history, Beck joined the staff at Loyola High School where he teaches world history and coached Cub baseball for six years, the last three as head coach. After winning the Los Angeles Time High School Coach of the Year award following the 2005 season, Beck left Loyola High School to become the pitching coach at his alma mater for a year.  He then moved to Bishop Amat High School where he is currently the Varsity Pitching Coordinator.  Beck’s pitchers have helped lead Bishop Amat to back-to-back CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) Sectional Championships. 

After a summer of coaching in the Great Lakes League, Coach Beck became the pitching coach of the Brewster Whitecaps in 2004. He returned to the CCBL in 2005 to take charge of the Cardinals’ highly successful pitching staff that ended the season with a league-leading 2.22 ERA. Beck worked his magic again in 2007 when his Cardinals staff again led the league in ERA, this time with a 2.79 mark. He is now in his fourth summer in Orleans and

Beck holds a masters degree in history from LMU.  He is happily married to Jayme, whom he proposed to during the summer of 2006 while she was visiting Cape Cod.  That night was one of just two games that the Cardinals tied in Beck’s career in Orleans.

Darren Fenster, Hitting/Third Base Coach
Rutgers University
Hometown: Neptune, N.J.

Fenster comes to Orleans for his first summer of Cape Cod League baseball action since he played in the league in 1998.  He joined the Rutgers baseball program in 2006 and currently serves as the team’s Director of Baseball Operations.

The Middletown, N.J. native had a remarkable playing career at Rutgers that resulted in two All-American selections at the shortstop position.  He left the Scarlet Knights as the program leader in several categories including career hits (315), single-season hits (101) and career doubles (65).  He was a consensus First-Team All-American as a senior in 2000 after hitting .433 and leading Rutgers to its first-ever 40-win season and an opportunity to host an NCAA Regional.  He is also a member of the Rutgers Olympic Sports Hall of Fame.

Fenster capped off his collegiate career with a 12^th round selection in the MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals.  He advanced to the AA level and was a Carolina League All-Star in both 2002 and 2004.  Fenster earned a non-roster invitation to the Royals spring training camp in 2005 but suffered a career-ending ACL injury in a spring training game with the Major League club.

Aside from his administrative duties at Rutgers, Fenster has also coached.  He spent last summer with the St. Cloud River Bats in the Northwoods League and helped lead them to the 2007 league championship.  He will be the Cardinals’ hitting and third base coach.

Brian Felten, Defense/First Base Coach
Loyola High School of Los Angeles
Hometown: Redondo Beach, Calif.

Felten, or ‘Felt’ as he is simply known in Cardinals circles, is returning for his third season with the team as an assistant coach.  Felten has a variety of responsibilities but focuses mainly on setting the team’s defense.  He is the current head coach at Loyola High School in Los Angeles.

The former Loyola Marymount star, Felten has a long-running history with the Cardinals’ coaching staff.  He was a 4-year letterwinner at LMU where he was a successful pitcher under the team’s pitching coach and current Cardinals manager Kelly Nicholson.  Felten began his coaching career as an assistant at Loyola High School under Cardinals pitching coach Chris Beck.  He then coached catching coach Larry Day during the summer of 2006.

As a senior at LMU, Felten pitched 42.1 innings and led the team with two saves.  Felten also led LMU to three consecutive WCC Championship teams from 1998-2000.  He went on to play two summers for the Fairbanks Goldpanners (now known as the Alaska Goldpanners) and was very successful, posting ERAs of 1.34 in 2000 and 2.21 in 2001.  He earned All-Alaskan League honors following the summer of 2000.

Felten has now finished his third year at the helm of Loyola High School.  He led Loyola to the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) Championship in 2007 and was named 2007 CIF Southern Section Coach of the Year. He also earned 2007 Los Angeles Daily News Coach of the Year honors.  It was the school’s first CIF title in baseball since 1954 covering a span of 53 years.

Larry Day, Catching Coach

University of Connecticut

Hometown: Amesbury, Mass.

Day returns to Orleans for a second stint after he played for the Cardinals during the summer of 2006.  He is responsible for coaching the team’s catchers after having an outstanding career as a catcher himself at the University of Connecticut.  The Amesbury, Mass. native recorded an impressive 37 assists behind the dish his senior season and was a standout at the plate as a sophomore and junior.  He hit .298 and drove in 22 runs in 2005 before batting .332 and recording 51 RBIs in 2006 while winning All-Big East honors.  Day was a two-year captain at UCONN and played in 27 games for the Cardinals in 2006.

Day continued his playing career after his UCONN playing days when he was drafted in the 50^th round of the 2007 MLB Draft by the New York Yankees.  He was assigned to the Gulf Coast League Yankees.  He played in 21 games for the club, hitting .213 and driving in eight runs in helping the Yankees win the league championship.  Day played seven games for the Charleston RiverDogs of the South Atlantic League in the spring of 2008 before retiring to focus on a coaching career beginning in Orleans.