Clay Van Hook - Baseball Coach - University of Houston Athletics

Clay Van Hook

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
cbvanhoo@central.uh.edu

Clay Van Hook joined the Houston Baseball coaching staff for the 2025 season in September 2024 after a successful two-year stint as the head coach at UT Arlington.

Van Hook follows in his father Kyle's footsteps as assistant coaches for the Cougars. Kyle was an assistant from 1984-85. The Van Hook father-son pair is the second father-son pairing to coach for Houston Baseball after Dr. Bragg Stockton and son Russell Stockton coached the Cougars across four different decades.

In two seasons in Arlington, Van Hook guided the Mavericks through one of the hardest non-conference schedules in the nation, facing off against nine 2023 regional qualifiers and mentored an offensive resurgence in 2022 where they smashed 56 home runs, the 3rd most in program history.

Van Hook helped guide his UTA squad to the semifinals of the 2023 WAC Championship, just one game away from the championship. Van Hook also helped lead the Mavericks to the team's first win over a top 10 opponent in six years with a 8-7 win over #10 TCU on March 7, 2023.

Before becoming the head skipper at UTA, Van Hook spent his previous five seasons as an assistant coach for Oklahoma, culminating with a College World Series Final in June of 2022. While with the Sooners, he served as the hitting coach, helped create the offensive game plan and worked with the infielders. He was also the third base coach on game days and assisted in coordinating OU's recruiting efforts.

In 2022, the Sooners were one of the top offenses in the nation. OU finished in the top five in the NCAA in base-on-balls (3rd, 374) and stolen bases (4th, 145). They were also ranked in the top 15 in the NCAA in runs scored (11th, 518), hits (14th, 675) and on-base percentage (14th, .412).

A native of Brenham, Texas, with deep Lone Star State recruiting roots, Van Hook served as Oklahoma's recruiting coordinator since 2021. In 2022, he was responsible for bringing in the nation's 13th-ranked recruiting class, according to Baseball America.

In the past two years, OU has had 13 players selected in the MLB Draft. Additionally, in the 2018 MLB Draft, a pair of Sooners went in the first two rounds in Kyler Murray (1st Round, Pick 9) and Steele Walker (2nd Round, 46th Overall).

Van Hook returns to Houston after a six-year stint across town at Rice as an assistant during the Owls' 2012-17 seasons. While with the Owls, he helped guide the program to NCAA Tournament appearances all six years from 2012 to 2017 and won the 2013 Oregon Regional.

Rice's offense was nationally recognized in 2014 and 2015, finishing in the top 40 in the NCAA both seasons. During the 2014 campaign, Rice led Conference USA and had the 13th-most hits in the nation, averaging 10.2 per game.

During his tenure with Rice, the Owls claimed 11 All-Americans, 31 all-conference selections and had 28 players selected in the MLB Draft.

Before getting to Rice, Van Hook was an assistant coach at McNeese State from 2009-11. The 2009 season saw the Cowboys set a school record in batting average (.312), while the 2010 team finished with the 7th-highest in school history. During his three seasons, he helped develop 14 all-league players and witnessed six players get drafted.

His coaching career began as a student assistant coach at Texas for the 2008 season.

Van Hook played one season at Navarro College before becoming a three-year letterman at Texas (2005-07). He was a member of the 2005 UT team which won the College World Series and was a Second Team All-Big 12 pick that same year. Van Hook was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 2007 MLB Draft following his senior season.

He and his wife Selina have a daughter, Avery, and a son Briscoe.