James Rayner Noble (born August 7, 1961) is an American former

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

coach and player. He last served as

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

. In his 16 years coaching

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, he is the winningest coach in program history. Noble's career coaching record is 551–420 (.567). A native of

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Noble attended

Spring Woods High School Spring Woods High School is a public secondary school in Spring Branch, Houston, Spring Branch, Houston, Texas, United States. The school, serving grades 9 through 12, is operated by Spring Branch Independent School District (SBISD). Spring Wood ...

and holds both a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Houston. From 1983 to 1987, Noble played

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

in the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

organization. Noble wore one of the highest numbers in college baseball (#85, as opposed to his playing #9), which he said he wore to remind himself of becoming a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

in 1985. He became the fifth head coach in the university's history on May 26, 1994. In 1998 he ran two baseball summer camp training sessions. The first was for players aged 7 to 12, the second for ages 10 to high schoolers expecting to graduate in 1999. The camps ran for one week each in July. After suffering the first consecutive losing seasons of his career, UH parted ways with Noble on June 4, 2010. He was hired on as coach at Second Baptist in 2019, replacing another former Astros player,

Lance Berkman William Lance Berkman (born February 10, 1976), nicknamed "Fat Elvis" and "Big Puma", is an American baseball coach and former professional baseball outfielder and first baseman, who is the former head baseball coach of the Houston Christian Hu ...

Accolades

Noble was voted the team MVP when playing for the Houston Cougars in 1983. He was also named the Conference Player of the Year that year. Noble received the Coach of the Year award in 1999 from

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

. He received the honor again in 2000. In 2002, Noble was named ABCA South Central Region Coach of the Year. On September 17, 2021, Noble was inducted into the University of Houston Hall of Honor.

Head coaching record

References

External links

TheBaseballCube.com player stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noble, Rayner 1961 births Living people Houston Cougars baseball coaches Houston Cougars baseball players Rice Owls baseball coaches All-American college baseball players Baseball players from Houston People from Foard County, Texas Daytona Beach Astros players Columbus Astros players Tucson Toros players