Brandon Nelson enters his second year with the Pioneers as the assistant baseball coach during the 2021-2022 season. His duties include recruiting, coaching first base, and coaching the team’s hitters and catchers.
In his first season with the Pioneers, Nelson helped coach the programs first ever All-American in Jonny Kelso. Kelso was also named the WIAC Position Player of the Year as well as the Region Player of the Year. Kelso led the conference in numerous offensive categories including, Hits, Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, On Base Percentage, OPS, Runs Scored, Total Bases and Stolen Bases. Grant Mullins was also tied for the conference lead in Triples. Under Nelson, the Pioneers offense saw numerous single season individual records fall such as Hits, Runs, Total Bases and Slugging Percentage. In addition, the career Hits record was broken as well. The team also posted the most Home Runs hit in a season since 2016.
Nelson spent the previous three summers as the head coach of the High Point Hushpuppies in the Old North State League, located in High Point, NC. In his three seasons as the head coach of the Hushpuppies, Nelson led his team to an overall record of 66-21, including league champions in 2020. He was also named the coach of the league's all-star team in all three summers while having more players selected to the all-star game than any other team in all seasons as well. During his time in the ONSL, Nelson left as the winningest coach in league history and coached the leagues first ever MLB draft pick in Brendan Collins (17th Round, Washington Nationals 2021 MLB Draft). On top of that Nelson coached the leagues Pitcher of the Year in all three seasons.
Nelson joined the Pioneer staff after working with Bryant and Stratton College in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a NJCAA Division 2 school. His duties at BSC included recruiting, coaching third base, and working with hitters and catchers. After a hot start, which included beating the number 18 team in the country, the season was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prior to coaching at BSC, Nelson spent time as an assistant coach at NCAA DIII Lakeland University in Plymouth, Wisconsin, from 2016-2018. He then served as an assistant coach for the Tucson Saguaros of the Pecos League of Professional Baseball for the 2018 season, where they won the division title and had the league Hitter and Pitcher of the Year. He also coached for the Bismarck Larks in the Northwoods League in the summer of 2017.
Before beginning his coaching duties, Nelson played independent minor league baseball for the Garden City Wind in the Pecos League. In his two seasons with the Wind, Nelson hit a combined .250 and helped the Wind earn their first division title in franchise history during the 2016 season. Prior to Garden City, Nelson played collegiately at Central Christian College of Kansas and Phoenix College until an elbow injury ended his collegiate career.
