Baseball
- Title:
- Athletic Trainer
ASSIGNMENT–Baseball
- Email:
- mrice@athletics.pitt.edu
- Phone:
- 412-383-8506
After being away from the University of Pittsburgh for far too long, Mark Rice returned to his alma mater in 2022 to fill the role of Assistant Athletic Trainer with the Pitt Baseball program.
Mark’s path back to the University is an unconventional one that includes career stops working as an athletic trainer ranging from the high school to Division I levels, as well as working in the private sector, including owning his own business for 6 years prior to returning home to the University of Pittsburgh.
In his free time, you can usually find Mark shuttling his son to some form of basketball-related activity and his daughter to swim practice or guitar lessons. When he does get some time to himself you can most likely find Mark, reading, learning to play guitar alongside his daughter, mixing in some sort of kettlebell workout or being the world’s worst fisherman.
A native of Pittsburgh, Mark currently resides in Jefferson Hills with his wife, Emily, who is former Duquesne University track & field stand out, and their 2 children, Nathaniel & Reagan.
Beyond the Bio
Favorite place on campus?
This might be a little controversial but I’ve got to go with Forbes Ave. I love being able to see the Cathedral at the far end and all of the activity and the people coming and going as you walk along.
Favorite sports moment?
That’s easy. November 13, 1999 Pitt beats Notre Dame at home for the last game ever at old Pitt Stadium. It was even better that I was on the field as an athletic training student and got to witness everything from ground level.
Favorite quote?
There are 2 quotes that I think have sort of shaped me over the years, but especially while I was in the thick of owning a business:
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt, The Man in the Arena
