Rasmussen credits Billings, who served as Pacific’s head coach from 2014 to 2024, for influencing much of his on-field coaching style and for learning how to build a winning atmosphere within a team. He credits Pacific Hall of Fame coach Greg Bradley, who led the Boxers from 1996 to 2014, for teaching him what caring for players and hard work look like.

“Bradley just had an inherent love for his players. You could just feel that,” Rasmussen said. “There was never a time when I questioned his care of each one of us or his desire for us to be successful. He worked incredibly hard and showed us what work ethic looked like.”

Following Pacific, Rasmussen spent two seasons on the staff at Division I Northern Colorado. He then spent three seasons as a hitting instructor in the Minnesota Twins organization, working with players with the Gulf Coast Twins and Fort Myers Mighty Mussels before returning to the Beehive State. After the 2025 season, Rasmussen signed a contract extension that will keep him at Utah Valley through 2029.

A film major in his first two years at Pacific, Rasmussen changed his major to business administration with a marketing emphasis because he felt like the classes better fit around his baseball schedule. Looking back, he realizes that those business classes were just as critical in his success as a coach as the hours in the dugout or hitting cage.

“It taught me as much as any coach in terms of recruiting,” Rasmussen said. “We talked about price, place, promotion and product. And that’s what we do here, right? My marketing degree set me up for a lot of success early on, specifically in recruiting. It got me thinking about things globally rather than just thinking about it in a baseball context.”

While Rasmussen is eight years removed from Pacific, Boxer Spirit influences the Wolverines’ success. Upon becoming head coach, he brought in fellow Boxer Kyle Treadway ’15 as the team’s pitching coach. The program has welcomed three graduate transfers from Pacific in Rasmussen’s four years with the program: Isaac Lovings ’23, Joey Harmon ’24 and CJ Colyer ’24.

During the 2025 playoff run, Colyer proved to be a key piece of the Wolverines’ success. The 2024 NWC Player of the Year and the Boxers’ single-season and career home run leader, Colyer batted .309 with 38 hits, 36 RBI and eight home runs in 43 games and 29 starts for Utah Valley. Colyer started the final 10 games of the season and his three-run ninth-inning homer in the team’s 3-1 WAC Tournament win over Abilene Christian was a needed offensive and confidence boost.

Pacific prepared Colyer for that moment. “Colyer had played on big stages. He had to transition to Division I arms, but he didn’t need to learn the importance of how far they had come and what winning meant to them. There was never a moment where we had to talk about competing. That was part of him already, and Pacific does a great job of instilling that in players.”

While it has been several years since Rasmussen has visited the Forest Grove Campus, Pacific keeps coming to him. And it serves as a reminder of how, in that moment, Pacific set the foundation for all the moments that have followed.

“Pacific is a really special place, to be honest,” Rasmussen said. “It’s really hard to put your foot in it, but I feel like the people who go there have this inherent pride. I have worked a few different places, but I still check in on Pacific. I don’t check in on all of them. Pacific breeds people that want to continue to be involved.”