Paul Panaccione - Baseball Coach - Grand Canyon University Athletics

Paul Panaccione

Title:
Assistant Coach
Years at GCU:
2026: 7th season
Email:
paul.panaccione@gcu.edu
Alma Mater:
Grand Canyon (2016)

Path to GCU
2009-12		Liberty HS (Peoria, Ariz.) Student-athlete
2013-16		Grand Canyon Student-athlete
2016-18		Washington Nationals Minor leaguer
2019-21		Grand Canyon Assistant coach
2022		Prep Baseball Report Arizona scouting director
2023-		Grand Canyon Assistant coach

After a four-year playing career at Grand Canyon, Paul Panaccione completed his fifth season as an assistant coach for the Lopes program in 2025.

Panaccione was an assistant coach for the 2019 through 2021 seasons before departing for a scouting role with Prep Baseball Report in Arizona. Panaccione returned to the coaching staff for the 2023 season under first-year head coach Gregg Wallis.

In his first year back on staff, Panaccione helped lead the Lopes to the 2023 WAC Regular-Season Championship. GCU won its final 13 WAC games to claim the title on the regular season's final day.

In 2024, Panaccione and GCU's staff helped lead the Lopes to a 2024 WAC Regular-Season Championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament. GCU did some damage in the Tucson Regional, defeating the host Wildcats and a top-25 Dallas Baptist team to reach the program's first regional championship.

Panaccione was also a member of GCU's coaching staff in 2021 that helped lead the program to its first NCAA tournament.

Panaccione was an infielder in the Lopes program from 2013 to 2016 and was one of its leaders during the transition to Division I. He appeared in 198 games during his four-year career finishing with a career batting average of .309 and driving in 112 runs. As a junior in 2015, Panaccione batted .376 and helped lead GCU to the WAC regular season title.

The shortstop also started 55 games as a freshman in 2013, an everyday member of a GCU team that reached the Division II College World Series the season before making the jump to D1 play.

Following his time at GCU, Panaccione was selected in the 10th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by the Washington Nationals. At the time, he was the highest-drafted position player from GCU since 2001. He spent three seasons playing in the Nationals organization.

In his first season on the GCU coaching staff, Panaccione has the unique opportunity to coach some of the players that he once shared the field with. As a senior in 2016, current Lopes Austin Bull, Tyler Wyatt, Preston Pavlica, Marc Mumper and Josh Andrews were freshmen.

Panaccione is a native of Peoria, Arizona, where he starred at Liberty High School. Off the baseball diamond, he was an accomplished football player as well, earning first team All-State honors.