(Mankato, MN)—The Mankato MoonDogs Baseball Club, a member of the Northwoods League, is proud to announce field manager Jason Nell will return for the 2007 season. Nell, who guided the MoonDogs to a 32-35 record this season, is eager to return and looking to bring the playoffs to Mankato for the first time.

"I’m excited, honored and proud to be coming back,” Nell said. "We accomplished a lot of things last season and now the next step is to come back, continue from where we left off and bring the playoffs to Mankato. ”

The 2006 season was Nell’s second year in the NWL, as he was an assistant coach in 2005 when he helped in leading the team to 34 victories, the most in any single-season for the MoonDogs. With this season’s 32 victories, it marked the first ever back-to-back 30+ win seasons for the MoonDogs.

After a slow start to the season, Coach Nell rallied the MoonDogs for a 20-13 record in the second half, setting a new MoonDogs record for wins in a half. He also led the ’Dogs to 16 road wins, which was another MoonDogs record.

"A lot of goals were reached in 2006 and Coach Nell was a key part in those achievements. We look forward to building on the strong foundation he established last season,” MoonDogs general manager Kyle Mrozek said.

Nell is currently the head coach at Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville, Iowa, where he has served as the head coach for Lakers over the past five seasons. In that time he has produced five All-Americans and recorded 126 victories.

Over the past ten seasons, Nell has put together an impressive coaching resume. Starting in his final season of play for University of Wisconsin River Falls, Nell took the reigns as head coach of the Somerset, WI, High School team. After finishing school in 1996, he returned to his alma mater as an assistant in 1997 and 1998.

He spent the summer of 1998 in New York as a specialist at a private sports camp before joining Loras College (Dubuque, IA) for 3 years as an assistant, while he earned his master’s degree in sports administration. From there he took the head coaching position he currently holds at Iowa Lakes and also spent the summers of 2003 and 2004 as the head coach of the Estherville American Legion team.

"Over the course of my coaching career, I’ve seen what it takes to win and that’s surrounding yourself with good people. To me, that entails everybody from the players, coaches and front office to the host families and the fans and we definitely have that in Mankato. I consider it to be a privilege to be part of an organization that has all of those pieces,” Nell said.

For more information please go to www.mankatomoondogs.com or call the MoonDogs ticket office at 507-625-7047.