One of the brightest young coaching stars in high school baseball in Michigan has joined the Hillsdale College coaching staff for the upcoming 2021 season. Travis Pant will serve as an assistant pitching coach and aid the Chargers in recruiting.
Pant comes to Hillsdale after five years as the head baseball coach at Petersburg-Summerfield High School in southeast Michigan, where he helped lead the Bulldogs to the pinnacle of the sport in the state. In the spring of 2019, with Pant at the helm, Petersburg-Summerfield captured the school's first MHSAA state championship in baseball with a 9-0 victory over Saginaw Nouvel in the Division 4 final. Along with the state championship, the Bulldogs also captured three MHSAA District titles, two regional titles, and had eight players earn MHSBCA All-State honors during Pant's tenure, and his 2019 team's staff ERA of 1.292 is the 11th best in Michigan state history. Pant was recognized as the MHSBCA State Coach of the Year in 2019, and also earned regional Coach of the Year honors in 2018 and 2019.
During his time with the Bulldogs, Pant also was active coaching in the travel team circuit, serving as head coach of the Lincoln Park Rails 18U summer team for a year, spending five years as a head or assistant coach with the Ida Post 514 19u American Legion team, and also serving as the pitching coach with the Demand Command Toledo 16U team for a year. Additionally, Pant served as a pitching instructor for two years, starting his own business, Powerhouse Pitching, to help develop young players.
Pant graduated from Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio in 2015, earning a Bachelor of Arts in History, and also served as the Director of Basketball Operations for the Gray Wolves while he was a student there. He went to high school at Ottawa Lake Whiteford in Ottawa Lake, Michigan, starring in both football and baseball and earning first-team all-state honors from the MHSBCA in 2009, before spending two years playing baseball at Lake Michigan Community College in Benton Harbor, Michigan under head coach Scott Ponegalek.
