19  Clay Van Hook
	Position: Assistant Coach At Rice: 1st Season

Clay Van Hook is in his first year with the Rice coaching staff after serving the previous two seasons as an assistant at McNeese State.

While at McNeese State Van Hook worked with infielders, helped with the team's hitting, and served as the Cowboys' third base coach. He had a role in recruiting and helped MSU post its first winning record in four years in his very first season with the program in 2010.

Rice head coach Wayne Graham stated that the addition of Van Hook in the summer of 2011 helped foster some new chemistry on the coaching staff while simultaneously paying respect to the past.

"Clay has been coaching a few years and he's from a baseball family who has been a student of the game his whole life,"Graham said. "His work-ethic is off the scale. He's been able to get the most out of his own ability and he will be able to do the same with the players around him.

"His father (Kyle Van Hook) was an assistant coach for me at San Jacinto for two years, and we won the national championship in both years (1989 & `90). The Van Hook family and I are 2-0 in winning national championships," Graham quipped.

A native of Brenham, Tex., Clay played one season at Navarro College before becoming a three-year letterman at the University of Texas (2005-07). He earned second team all-Big 12 and was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the major league draft.

Van Hook earned his degree at Texas in 2008 while serving one season as a student-coach with the Longhorns. On game days Van Hook will coach first base. In addition to his on-field duties at Rice, he will take over the administering of the Owls' popular Youth Baseball Camps (a role formerly held by current assistant coach Patrick Hallmark).

Van Hook and his wife, Selina, live in Pearland, Tex.