Marshall McDonald enters his third season as the head baseball coach at Catawba Valley Community College in 2023-24.

McDonald guided Catawba Valley to a 34-23 record during his second season at the helm in the spring of 2023, including a 21-7 mark in conference games.

During his first season as head coach of the Red Hawks, McDonald led the program to a 37-26 overall record, including a 24-12 record in Region 10 West division play. Under McDonald's leadership, Catawba Valley also won its first Region 10 championship since 2015 and was within one game of making the NJCAA Division II World Series.

McDonald spent the prior three seasons from 2018-21 as an assistant baseball coach at Montreat College, helping the Cavaliers win 60 games, including 19 in conference play.

During his four prior seasons coaching baseball at CVCC, McDonald spent three of them as hitting coach, leading the Red Hawks to new school records for home runs in each of those seasons.

The 2016 CVCC baseball team re-wrote the offensive record books at Catawba Valley under the leadership of coach McDonald.  Those records include a .424 on-base percentage, 415 runs scored, 126 doubles, 48 home runs and 362 RBIs. The 2016 Red Hawks baseball team also finished ranked nationally in a number of categories, including 24th in runs scored, 21st in hits, sixth in doubles, 18th in home runs, 25th in RBIs, 21st in batting average and 13th in slugging percentage. 

McDonald took over the responsibilites as the CVCC hitting and infield Coach in 2015. In his first year, the Red Hawks finished ranked in the top 15 nationally in three categories, including hits (11th), doubles (ninth) and home runs (15th). CVCC also set a school record for hits with 585. All of these accolades helped the Red Hawks capture a regular-season championship, a Region 10 and District Championship and a third-place national finish at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II World Series.

McDonald originally returned to his alma mater Red Hawks for the 2014 season where he served as a volunteer assistant to a team that set the school record for wins with 41 and also captured a regular-season conference championship.

Prior to coaching at CVCC, McDonald worked as a personal trainer with Super Fit — a fitness organization in Asheville, N.C.  McDonald also served as the middle school coach for the Asheville Christian Academy.

McDonald started his playing career at CVCC as a part of the school's inaugural baseball team in 2010, and he set the single-season home run record during that season with 15 long balls. He was later named First-Team All-Region 10 that season.

After the 2010 spring season, McDonald signed with Montreat College where he went on to earn Academic All-Conference both seasons. During his senior season, the Cavaliers named McDonald team captain, and he was named All-Conference before graduating in 2012.

Coach McDonald's independent professional baseball career included stops at The Skagit Valley Lumberjakcs, Hawaii Stars, Vallejo Admirals, Sonoma Stompers, and Pittsburg Mettel.  McDonald played winter ball in a Puerto Rican League — Liga De Beisbol Superior AA — in 2013 for the Rincon Touristas.

McDonald played at Red Springs High School in Red Springs, N.C.  He was named two-time all-conference and all-county in baseball and one time all conference for football. He currently resides in Hickory, N.C.