SPOKANE, Wash-  Gonzaga Baseball head coach Mark Machtolf has announced the hiring of Ed Knaggs as a new assistant coach ahead of the 2026 season. Knaggs returns for his third stint as an assistant coach at Gonzaga, having previously served as assistant coach during the 1981-1984 and 1990 seasons.

Machtolf remarked "We are very excited to add Ed to our program. He's a proven winner, and we have a long track record of trusting him with developing our players in the summer. We're excited to have him in our dugout."

The Zags had a 160-128 record across his five years serving as an assistant to longtime head coach Steve Hertz, the all-time wins leader at Gonzaga. Knaggs has developed as a proven leader in his own right across 14 seasons as a head coach, developing a reputation as of one of the most successful collegiate summer league coaches in the northwest.

Knaggs joins the Zags after capturing another West Coast League championship with the Bellingham Bells last season, clinching the title in his single season piloting the collegiate summer league team. Knaggs had previously led one of the most effective dynasties in the WCL, leading the Wenatchee AppleSox from 2001 through 2014. The Applesox posted a winning record every year that Knaggs was the head coach, winning the WCL championship five times and making the final seven times in an nine year span from 2005 to 2013.

While with the AppleSox, Knaggs helped develop 16 future MLB players, including former Gonzaga standout Marco Gonzales. Knaggs helped develop professional stars, producing an alumni list that includes two World Series Champions in Clayton Mortenson and Jason Hammel, 2020 Gold Glove winner Griffin Canning and 2025 All-Star Drew Rasmussen. Knaggs was named the WCL Head Coach of the year four times and won nearly two thirds of his games as a head coach in the league, amassing a 63.3 win percentage in the regular season with a combined 333-193 record across his head coaching career.