The Wichita State baseball program has added Connor Behrens as a volunteer assistant coach for the 2022 season.

 Behrens comes to Wichita from Point Loma Nazarene University, where he served as the infield and hitting coach for the Sea Lions. Prior to his time in San Diego, the native of Lincoln, Neb., spent two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Central Missouri.

 Working primarily with the hitters at UCM, Behrens helped engineer an offense that ranked top-10 nationally in a litany of offensive categories, including batting average, hits, home runs, runs, slugging percentage, stolen bases and hit by pitch.

 Over Behrens’s two seasons in Warrensburg, the Mules went 66-11 (.857), producing seven all-conference players, five all-region hitters, and three All-Americans. UCM was off to a 20-3 start in 2020 before the remainder of the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Those two places, especially UCM was a lot of toughness and grit,” Behrens said. “You learn how to get through a bunch of crap, you don’t have the facilities and all the amenities. Just become the jack of all trades because you don’t have the same support staff.”

Behrens played collegiately at Kansas City Kansas Community College and Lindenwood University, where he hit a combined .304 over two seasons. As a junior in 2017, he helped the Lions to their first-ever appearance in the Division-II World Series.

 Behrens began his coaching career the following year as an assistant for his alma mater, Lincoln Southwest High School, where he was an all-state performer as a player.

“I think being as young as I am, the most important thing I can do is try and relate to the players and try to give them the perspective of where the coaching staff is coming from,” Behrens said. “There’s a bit of a gap in age so just trying to give them a perspective on some things.”