Dalton Parks named head baseball coach at M State in Fergus Falls

Dalton Parks has taken over a Minnesota State Community and Technical College baseball program in Fergus Falls that is trying to stay in the hunt while building its next roster. M State announced Parks on July 9 as the Spartans’ new head baseball coach, and he will also work as a health and recreation faculty member and speed and strength coach.

The hire gives the program a coach with experience in recruiting and student development at a school that plays at 1414 College Way and competes in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference and NJCAA Division III. That matters for local players around Otter Tail County, where M State has long served as an in-town college baseball option for athletes looking to stay close to home while chasing a path to more competitive play.

Parks arrives after six-year head coach Grant Harding stepped down in May. He comes to Fergus Falls after most recently serving as head baseball coach at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, where he helped launch the program and guided it to its first victories in school history. Before that, he spent four years as assistant baseball coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Minnesota Crookston, giving him a direct connection to northwest Minnesota and the kinds of regional relationships that can shape junior college rosters.

His coaching background also includes stops at the University of West Alabama, Clarendon College and Hunter High School. Parks also played collegiately at Minnesota Crookston and Brown Mackie College, a path that gives him experience on both sides of the recruiting and development pipeline that now falls to him in Fergus Falls.

The Spartans’ program carries a history that raises the stakes of the change. M State baseball lists five state championships, won in 1971, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2013, and says the team has also made national championship appearances. For a program with that record, the hiring signals an effort to keep the Fergus Falls team competitive while giving local athletes a new voice in the dugout and a coach who will also be tied to strength and conditioning work across campus.