IOWA CITY, Iowa – David Pearson will join the University of Iowa baseball program as the volunteer assistant coach, it was announced Tuesday by head coach Rick Heller. Pearson will serve as the Hawkeyes’ hitting coach.
Pearson joins the program following a two-year run as an associate head coach at North Dakota State – his second stint with the Bison. He also has served as head coach at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) from 2016-19.
During the 2021 season, Pearson helped the Bison to a school record 42 victories, as the team went 42-19 on its way to a Summit League Tournament title and NCAA Regional berth. NDSU won its first NCAA Regional game – a 6-1 win over Nevada – to tally its first NCAA win of the Division I era.
Pearson spent 10 years in Fargo from 2007-2016 where he ended his run as the associate head coach for two seasons. He helped the Bison to their first-ever Summit League Tournament championship and an NCAA Division I tournament berth in 2014. He also assisted the Bison to three Summit League championship game appearances and five league tournament berths in the final six seasons.
Pearson was part of both of North Dakota State’s NCAA Regional berths and both of the program’s 40-win seasons.
In his 10 years at NDSU, Pearson helped the Bison establish several offensive season records, including most triples, hits and sacrifice hits in 2012 and most times hit by pitch in 2010, along with defensive season records for fielding percentage, putouts, assists and chances during the 2012 campaign.
Pearson worked with 2014 Summit League Player of the Year and first team All-Summit League selection Tim Colwell along with Michael Leach, who was also named to the all-league first team. He also coached 2016 All-Summit League First Team honoree Drew Fearing. A total of 19 players signed professional contracts during Pearson’s tenure in Fargo.
In the classroom, the Bison routinely posted an average 3.0 team GPA and Pearson coached four players that combined for eight CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-America® awards, including Colwell, who was named the 2014 CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-America® Athlete of the Year for Division I Baseball and was a three-time first-team Academic All-America® honoree. Colwell was also named The Summit League Male Scholar Athlete of the Year.
North Dakota State also had three student-athletes earn prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships, while two Bison baseball teams (2014, 2015) earned NCAA Public Recognition Awards.
During his head coaching stint at DMACC, Pearson led the Bears to a 38-17 record and the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference title in 2018. He was named the ICCAC Coach of the Year. In three seasons as head coach, DMACC averaged 32 wins per season and the team appeared in the 2018 NJCAA Region XI Tournament title game.
Pearson also served as an assistant coach at North Dakota in 2004, helping UND to a school-record 37 victories and a regular season conference crown. He was an assistant coach at Mayville State in 2005 and 2007, where he helped the Comets to a conference tournament title.
Pearson’s coaching career began as an assistant on the 2003 state tournament team at May-Port-CG High School.
As a player, Pearson was a two-time all-conference infielder in junior college at Minot State-Bottineau, where he was a member of the 2000 team that won the Mon-Dak title. He went on to play two seasons at Mayville State and was a member of two Region 3 championship teams and he played in the 2002 NAIA World Series. Pearson was inducted into the Dakota College at Bottineau Hall of Fame in 2015.
Pearson graduated from Mayville State in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in business education. He and his wife, Keleigh have two children, Carter and Berkley.
