TUCSON, Ariz. — Arizona Baseball Head Coach Chip Hale today announced the promotion of John DeRouin (pronounced duh-ROY-in) to the role of Assistant Coach, effective immediately. DeRouin will serve as the Wildcats pitching coach.

DeRouin has been with the Wildcats for two seasons, joining the program as the Wildcats Director of Player Development in 2024 before earning a promotion to Director of Pitching Performance and Strategy for the 2025 season.

"Since joining our program John has been a tremendous resource for out student-athletes and our staff and a major part of our improvement on the mound over the previous two seasons" Hale said. "Retaining and promoting John into a full-time coaching role overseeing our pitching is a great opportunity to continue our upward trajectory and sets us up for near-term and long-term success."

During the last two years on the Wildcats staff, DeRouin has played a pivotal role in the development and success of the Arizona pitching staff and the creation of the state-of-the-art Pitching Wing lab.

"I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Coach Hale for his support and belief in my ability to take on this new role," DeRouin said. "In two years at Arizona we have built a world-class pitching development program, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue building on our success. We have championship-caliber facilities, staff, and student-athletes in place at Arizona, putting us in the perfect position to achieve all our goals."

Under DeRouin's guidance the Wildcats have developed two All-American pitchers, three First Team All-Conference arms, and four MLB Draft selections.

Among the many success stories of the Wildcats pitching development program the last two seasons, perhaps none stand out as much as reliever Tony Pluta. The right-hander posted one of the greatest seasons of relief pitching in program history in 2025 and subsequently was named the NCBWA Stopper of the Year and earned All-America selections by every major national organization.

In his first season with the program in 2024, DeRouin helped drive an ERA drop of over a run and a half from the season prior. At the same time the Wildcats paced the entire nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio and BB/9 rate, both metrics in which Arizona again ranked in the Top 12 nationally in 2025.

DeRouin Coaching History

• 2026–current: Arizona, Assistant Coach
• 2025: Arizona, Director of Pitching Performance and Strategy
• 2024: Arizona, Director of Player Development
• 2022–23: Detroit Tigers, Rehab Pitching Coordinator
• 2019–22: Hop's Athletic Performance, Pitching Coordinator & Instructor
• 2020–22: North East Baseball (NEB), Pitching Coordinator, Instructor & Coach
• 2019–20: New England Scorpions, Pitching Coach