2021 Orange County Riptide Coaching Staff
Mitch LeVier – Head Coach
Mitch LeVier enters the 2021 collegiate summer baseball season as the Head Coach of the Orange County Riptide. LeVier’s main duties with the OC Riptide include roles as Field Manager and Hitting Instructor. This is LeVier’s second stint with the Riptide after serving as an assistant coach on the 2018 team that ended the season in second place in the California Collegiate League.
LeVier has previous coached at San Juan Hills High School as an assistant coach for one year and spent three years as the hitting instructor at Fullerton College prior to working at San Juan Hills.
As a collegiate player, LeVier batted left-handed and played the outfield at Fullerton College. He earned Juco All-American honors in both his freshman and sophomore years in 2007 and 2008. LeVier was named the Southern California Junior College Player of the Year in 2008 as a sophomore.
LeVier was selected in the ninth round of the 2008 MLB amateur draft by the Oakland Athletics. As a professional baseball player, LeVier played five seasons within the Oakland A’s organization and one year in Independent baseball. LeVier played for the Vancouver Canadians, Kane County Cougars, Arizona League Athletics and the Stockton Ports before retiring from professional baseball and going into coaching.
When not coaching the OC Riptide, LeVier works as a private hitting instructor in Orange County, Calif.
Tim Brown – Associate Head Coach
Coach Tim Brown was most recently the Head Baseball Coach at Riverside City College located in Riverside, California where he remains a Full Professor in the Department of English and Media Studies. While at RCC, Brown coached Wayne Housie who played center ield for the Boston Red Sox before being traded to the New York Mets and Mike Garcia who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In addition, many of his players went on to play at perennial college baseball powers including Fresno State and Long Beach State.
Brown spent six years as the Assistant Baseball Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at UC Santa Barbara helping develop several future major league baseball players including Dave Walsh (Los Angeles Dodgers), Joe Redfield (Pittsburgh Pirates), and Joe Kmak (Milwaukee Brewers) among others. While at UCSB, the 1983 Gauchos were Southern California Baseball Association Champions and missed what would have been their first trip to the College Baseball World Series in a loss to the Stanford Cardinal in the finals of the NCAA West Regional in Palo Alto, California.
During the summer of 1982 and while at UCSB, Brown was appointed by the USA Baseball to assist the Federación Ecuatoriana de Béisbol developing and promoting youth baseball. He traveled throughout the South American country conducting baseball skills clinics for youth baseball coaches. While in residence in Guayaquil, Brown also trained both players and coaches for the Ecuadorian Pan American and National Baseball teams.
Prior to UCSB, Brown was a Graduate Assistant Baseball Coach at University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley (formerly Pan America University) under the tutelage of legendary Coach Al Ogletree, a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. While at PAU, the 1978 team just missed its second trip to the College Baseball World Series after losing to Mississippi State in the semi-finals of NCAA Southwest Regional at Arlington, Texas. Brown coached the outfielders and assisted with recruiting.
Brown has also coached collegiate summer baseball across North America including the Cape Cod League (Hyannis Harbor Hawks), the New England Collegiate Baseball League (Vermont Mountaineers), Great Lakes Collegiate Summer League (Lake Erie Monarchs) and most recently, the Kelowna B.C Falcons of the West Coast League. Brown holds a B.A. Sec. Ed. from Arizona State University, a M.Ed. from UT Rio Grande Valley, a M.S. from California State Fullerton, and an Ed.D. from Pepperdine University. He resides in Newport Beach.
Randy Barber – Pitching Coach
Coach Randy Barber Joined the Orange County Riptide in 2020 but due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the California Collegiate League’s and the Riptide’s seasons were canceled. Coach Barber returns to the Riptide in 2021 and will coach the pitchers.
Barber was recently named pitching coach at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona as they prepare for their inaugural season in the NAIA CalPac Conference. Prior to accepting the pitching coach position with Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Barber has experience in other collegiate wood bat summer leagues, most notably in the Alaska League with Alaska Goldpanners.
Barber’s tenure with the Goldpanners started in 1994 as an assistant coach. He was elevated to Pitching Coach in 2009 with the barnstorming Goldpanners, Head Coach of the Goldpanners B Team in 2011. He also held down Assistant General Manager and play-by-play duties for the Goldpanners in 2010 and 2012-2013.
Barber was also a part of the Czech Republic’s men’s national and junior national team’s and Technika Brno in their Extraliga in 1995 and 1996. In 2009-2010 and 2013, Barber was an associate scout with the Detroit Tigers organization based primarily in Arizona. Barber typically scouted talent in the winters and springs and joined the Goldpanners in the summers.
Barber has coached high school baseball in Alaska, Arizona, California and been part of eight state championship coaching staffs. He has a BA in Secondary Educations and a Masters in Secondary Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Arizona State University.
Cody Gutierrez – Pitching Assistant
Cody Gutierrez is a new addition to the OC Riptide coaching staff in 2021. This is Gutierrez’s first year with the Riptide serving as the Assistant Pitching Coach.
Gutierrez, a graduate from Graceland University, Iowa, is currently the head varsity coach for his alma mater, Buena Park High School.
Gutierrez posted a career 5.76 ERA over 105 innings at his time at Graceland University.
Gutierrez looks to bring a positive attitude and a great work ethic to the Riptide. He hopes to further his knowledge of the game while imparting his own to the Riptide players.
Andrew Ramos – Assistant Coach / Catchers
Andrew Ramos is an Orange County, Calif. native and joins the Riptide coaching staff as an assistant coach working with the catchers. Ramos is not stranger to coaching collegiate summer baseball. He began his career in the CCL as part of the San Luis Obispo Blues coaching staff from 2019-2020.
Prior to the Blues, Coach Ramos was with the NAIA’s powerhouse & nationally ranked University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky. During his time at UC, he helped guide the Patriots to a 2019 Mid-South Conference Regular Season Championship. Cumberland was a host site for the NAIA’s World Series Opening Round two years in a row. While with the Patriots, Ramos coached catchers and hitting instruction. In his tenure there, Ramos assisted the Patriots to lead the NAIA in home runs in 2019. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Sport Science and a minor in Public Health.
Prior to the Patriots, Ramos began his coaching career as part of the OC Riptide’s affiliate team, the OC Surf, in 2018. Part of the OC Surf staff, he barnstormed up and down the coast of California and took the team to Fairbanks, Alaska to compete against the Goldpanners in the 114th Annual Mid-Night Sun Game.
Ramos is currently a Graduate Assistant Coach for Holy Names University in Oakland, Calif. There, he is working towards his Master’s Degree in Applied Sport and Performance Psychology.
Sam Tetrault – Graduate Assistant
Sam Tetrault was born and raised in Fullerton, California. A graduate of Troy High School, Tetrault is currently a senior student manager and bullpen catcher for the University of Arizona baseball team.
While at UofA, Tetrault has served under head coach Jay Johnson and assistant coach Nate Yeskie, working with Rapsodo, BATS and Trackman technologies.
Tetrault has coached with travel ball organizations, Samurai Baseball Club of Fullerton and Diamond Elite Sports Academy, over the past 4 summers.