Disclaimer: Maryland baseball operations director Derek Ohringer is a former Diamondback recruiting sports reporter.
Derek Ohringer’s childhood memories are synonymous with Maryland athletics.
He attended basketball games at Xfinity Center, often heckling opposing players. Ohringer watched former Maryland wide receiver Torrey Smith at the then-Byrd Stadium and wore Terps gear to school nearly every day.
“I’ve been to more Maryland sporting events than anybody can count,” Ohringer said. “It’s just kind of always been a part of life.”
It wasn’t just a crazed childhood fandom that drew Ohringer to the Terps. Maryland sports is an Ohringer family affair. Derek’s father, Ron Ohringer, was the Terps’ equipment manager for 35 years before retiring in 2023, leaving as the longest-tenured member in the athletic department.
Now, Derek follows in his father’s footsteps serving in his first year as the baseball team’s operations director.
“I like having the family name continuing. There’s a little mark of pride for me,” Ron Ohringer said. “It’s good and fun to see him continuing in Maryland and hopefully developing some of the memories that I have.”
Ohringer has a collection of memories about Maryland sports.
Once, he spotted a Baltimore Ravens Smith T-shirt in a grocery store. When he pointed it out, his dad casually asked if he wanted to call the NFL player — then dialed Smith on the spot.
At a youth baseball camp, former Maryland baseball star LaMonte Wade Jr. gave him the nickname “Ohringah,” which he uses as his Instagram username.
[Maryland baseball uses early scoring surge to beat Penn State, 7-4]
“Growing up around it has helped me understand the role of everybody in sports,” Ohringer said. “What’s drawn me toward it as a career really is the relationships within a clubhouse.”
Ohringer knew early on baseball was his passion, but he wasn’t sure what form it would take. In high school, he created a YouTube channel called The Baseball Channel to review baseball equipment.
When he enrolled at Maryland in 2019, he featured the Terps’ baseball team in his videos — thanks to access from then-head coach Rob Vaughn. Ohringer produced content giving viewers an inside look at the program.
“Back then, I was probably teasing Ronnie a little bit, like, ‘What’s he doing here?’” said coach Matt Swope, who was an assistant coach then. “He was starting on his journey to be educated about the games.”
His most popular upload, “What Happens at a College Baseball Practice?,” has reached nearly half a million views since January 2020.
“I felt like there was an opportunity, and as I was making the videos, more and more people were engaging with them and enjoying them,” Ohringer said. “And then COVID hit.”
Uploads slowed after the pandemic. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue the channel or journalism altogether. He briefly wrote for The Diamondback, where he covered Maryland recruiting, but was drawn to what happened behind closed doors rather than what was said on the record.
That perspective aligned with a new opportunity: former pitching coach Corey Muscara asked if he wanted to become the baseball team’s student manager. He worked for another baseball team, being the bat boy for the World Series-winning Washington Nationals in 2019.
Over the next three years, Ohringer embedded himself in the everyday fabric of the program. He earned the Jack Heise Award in 2022, given for outstanding service by a team manager.
As a student manager, he saw his father in the equipment room every day — as he had as a child. His experiences showed him the demands of a sports career and the importance of the unnoticed work behind the scenes.
“It’s definitely a privilege to have someone like that set an example for me,” Ohringer said. “Your goal is to go unnoticed … you go to work for your own pride, to help the team that you care about, [and] to help the school that you care about.”
[Chords, chimes and candles: How Maryland baseball’s using sound therapy to its advantage]
After graduating, Ohringer worked in the Arizona Fall League for the MLB in late 2023 as a team operations coordinator and worked in the Nationals visiting clubhouse for the most of the 2024 season.
When Maryland’s previous operations director left after last season, it was a perfect fit for Ohringer.
He said the job has felt natural. Ohringer’s always been around the building, whether as a manager or as a child — folding towels in the equipment room and sitting in his father’s office while he showed Under Armour gear to football recruits.
“Ronnie is really special to me, someone that’s synonymous with Maryland, so it’s cool to see Derek trying to follow those footsteps,” Swope said.
Ohringer handles everything from travel logistics and equipment tech to being the bridge between coaches and departments such as marketing or compliance. He’s embraced the role’s unpredictability — cutting video clips, troubleshooting gear and even sleeping on a locker room couch after late road trips.
His background as a student manager taught him to anticipate problems. From hunting down magnets for the dugout whiteboard before first pitch to rerouting dinner deliveries, he’s learned to adapt quickly.
“That’s the hardest job in the world, and for him to do that and work so hard for us, it really doesn’t go unnoticed,” senior infielder Eddie Hacopian said.
For Ohringer, the reward isn’t the spotlight. Like his father, he wants to see Maryland succeed.
“The jobs I did, the jobs Derek’s doing — it’s not a lot of limelight. It’s really a lot of crossbars and just getting it done,” Ron Ohringer said.
