The California Warriors coaching staff is comprised primarily of former California Warriors players who have played or currently play college baseball. We have a Coach Development Program that ensures our coaches learn subtleties of teaching student athletes about baseball while developing important life skills in leadership and interpersonal communication. Click here to apply to become a California Warriors Coach.
Coach Noah Jackson (njackson@firstbasefoundation.org) founded FBF-CW and was the Associate Head Coach at UC Berkeley from 2016-2024. He also served as the Golden Bears’ recruiting coordinator while overseeing the team’s hitters and outfielders. Jackson is currently working for the Boston Red Sox.
Jackson was instrumental in establishing Cal’s culture of player development and has seen 22 players taken in the Major League Baseball Draft during his tenure. The Bears set a program record 2022 for the most players selected in the first five rounds of a single MLB Draft (4). Cal has also had three first-round picks – Andrew Vaughn (No. 3 overall, 2019), Korey Lee (No. 32 overall, 2019) and Dylan Beavers (No. 33 overall, 2022) – with Jackson on staff, all of which were undrafted out of high school. Jackson mentored Vaughn, the 2018 Golden Spikes Award winner, and helped Beavers emerge as one of the top power-hitting players on the west coast with 36 career long balls, the seventh most in program history. Vaughn and Lee became the first duo in school history to be taken in the first round of the same draft, and Vaughn additionally became the program’s highest-drafted player ever.
Jackson earned his undergraduate degree in American Studies from Cal in 2003. A native of Mill Valley, California, Jackson attended Marin Catholic High School (Kentfield, CA) and is the godson of Dusty Baker. Jackson’s father, Sylvester, served as a radio broadcaster for the Oakland Athletics.
Noah founded the First Base Foundation as a way to give back to the community. Since 2003 over a thousand high school athletes have gone through the California Warriors baseball program. Many of these individuals have gone on to play in college and currently have jobs with MLB.
Coach Elijah “Bear” Smith (bearsmith@firstbasefoundation.org) is the California Warriors Director of Baseball Operations. He is a California Warriors alum who redshirted on the UC Berkeley baseball team and graduated from Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he earned his Bachelors degree in 2019. He was an All-Pac West Conference selection during both years at Academy of Art in 2018 and 2019 and was named All-West Region in 2019. The Team Captain in 2019, he was also chosen as the Urban Knights’ Most Valuable Player. He set the Academy of Art single season records for doubles, triples, and OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage). After graduating, Coach Bear worked as an Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator for Academy of Art and is currently an Assistant Coach with the Willamette University baseball team, where he works with infielders and is the hitting coach.
Assistant Coach Tucker Bougie graduated Tamalpais High School in 2021 where he earned Marin County Athletic League Player of the Year, West Coast Preps Bay Area Pitcher of the Year, and San Francisco Chronicle Co-North Bay Regional Player of the Year honors. He graduated UC Berkeley in 2025 and pitched 4 years for the Bears. He is currently a baseball coach at Tamalpais High School.
