Powers wants to come back in 2012

RENO - Gary Powers fulyl intends to coach the Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team in the 2012 season and beyond.

"I'm in here today, doing the best job I can to make this a better baseball team in 2012," Powers said Wednesday afternoon from his Legacy Hall office on the Nevada campus. "That's all I'm concerned about right now, making us better and righting this ship."

Powers' current contract expires at the end of June. The Wolf Pack finished 24-31 this past season in his 29th year as head coach. The Wolf Pack started off 0-9, rebounded to finish in third place in the Western Athletic Conference and went 1-2 in the conference's postseason tournament last week in Mesa, Ariz.

Powers said he has gotten no indication that he won't be asked back for a 30th season in 2012.

"None at all," he said. "But we're not thinking about that. Our whole mindset is to come in here, work hard everyday and get better."

Powers said he also expects all of his assistant coaches -- Chris Pfatenhauer, Buddy Gouldsmith and Pat Flury -- to return in 2012. Flury, the Pack's pitching coach, is an unpaid volunteer coach. Pfatenhauer has been at Nevada since 2010 and Gouldsmith joined the staff this season.

"My assistants did a fantastic job this year," Powers said. "They worked incredibly hard after our tough start to get this team to where it was very competitive at the end of the year."

The Wolf Pack went 7-4 in its last 11 games and 24-22 since March 6.

"This team accomplished a lot of great things, especially considering how we started," Powers said. "Nobody quit on this team, the coaches or the players.

"I'm proud of how this team grew as the year went on. We finished third in a league where we were the most inexperienced team in the league. Now, does that mean that I am satisfied that we finished third? Of course not. But when you look at how we started and where we ended up, that is a nice accomplishment."

Powers has a career record of 880-705-5 as Wolf Pack head coach since 1983. His 29 Wolf Pack teams have turned in 19 seasons of .500 or better and have never finished as much as 10 games below .500.

Powers, who has 16 30-victory seasons and four NCAA regional appearances to his credit, is already the longest tenured coach in the history of Nevada athletics.

"I know that someday I will retire but that day is not now," Powers said. "I don't have the desire to do that (retire) right now at all."

Powers said he has no idea how long he will continue to coach the Wolf Pack. The 2012 season will be the final year for the program in the WAC before moving to the Mountain West Conference.

"I spent my first 25 years on a series of one-year contracts," he said. "This last contract (which expires at the end of the month) was for three and a half years and that was the first one that was for more than one year. So I'm used to that (one-year deals).

"I still enjoy what I'm doing. I still have a passion for it. I know people are saying I don't have the same passion or intensity. Those people don't know me. I'm still working as hard as I ever did.

"People are also saying that I had a lot of off-field distractions (he is going through a divorce), that it affected me and how I did my job. It has been tough. I have had a lot of personal things going on in my life this year. But I've worked very hard at this to not allow those things to affect the way I do my job. I know how to go out on the field and put those things aside.

"That's why I also owe it to myself to give it at least one more year to see if I can still do this without those distractions, without all those stresses, to see if I can still do this job and turn this thing around."

Powers said he is extremely proud of what he has accomplished at Nevada.

"Whenever the time comes that I do leave this job, all I know is that the person who gets the job after me will have it a whole lot easier than when I first got here."