(Miles City, MT) Rob Bishop, former Miles Community College head baseball coach, has been named as a 2019 Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee. Bishop coached the very first baseball team at MCC, building the program from nothing.  Bishop is currently in his second season at the helm of the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State University head baseball coach in Brookings, South Dakota.   

"It is a great honor to be named into the MCC Athletic Hall of Fame," commented Coach Bishop on the induction. "Miles City and MCC will always be where I'm from and where I started my coaching career.  I look back on my time there with nothing but fondness."

Coach Bishop was the Pioneer Baseball coach from 2001-2010.  Coach Bishop put MCC Baseball on the map during his time at the helm, winning MonDak conference championships every year. His teams also claimed five consecutive junior college region titles and a Northwest District Championship in 2007 to advance to the NJCCA Division II College World Series. Bishop's teams won at least 20 games each of his 10 seasons, including four 40-win seasons, and ended his career at MCC with a 377-151 overall record. He won an impressive 71 percent of his games as a head coach (414-169) and earned NJCAA Region IX Coach of the Year honors four consecutive years (2007-2010).  He also was the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference Coach of the Year each of his 10 years at Miles. Bishop also served as the Athletic Director for the last five years of his tenure at MCC.

"Rob's impact on the program is insurmountable," commented current Pioneer head baseball coach, Jeff Brabant. "Starting a program from scratch is no easy task and yet the successes that this program and teams had during his tenure on and off the field were tremendous.  His legacy is etched in stone with the program and his fingerprints are still all over it.  Without him, the program isn't what it is today with the successes that we have.  I'm fortunate to have been able to coach with him for 7 years while he was at the helm and his mentorship has allowed the continuance of what he left in his wake.  Not only is he a great leader, he is also a great person of character and integrity…and both of those are still alive and well in this program.  Not many would argue that to some degree, this is still his program."

"Getting the opportunity to start the program at MCC was a valuable experience," commented Coach Bishop. "I got to build the program and the culture that I wanted from the ground up.  Also, the experience I had as an AD in my last five years at MCC gave me great perspective that I have carried with me through the years to where I am now."

Prior to Miles, he was the head coach at Huron University in Huron, S.D., from 1999-2000, after serving as a graduate assistant coach at South Dakota State from 1997-99.