Howie Krause is in his 21st season as head coach of the Lakeland Community College baseball program. A three-time Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) coach of the year (2004, 2005, 2013), Krause has guided the Lakers to five conference championships since taking the head coaching job in 2002.

Under Krause, nine student athletes have earned NJCAA All-Americans honors, including a pair of first-team selections. Before being named head coach, Krause spent one year as an assistant coach under Chris Mongiardo.

In 2013, the Lakers claimed their first conference title since 2008 and earned an automatic bid to the Region XII tournament as a top seed from the South District. Lakeland swept the OCCAC postseason awards including the Coach, Player (Wil Shortreed), and Pitcher (Brandon Easton) of the Year. Three members of that team were also named to the OCCAC All-Academic Team for earning a cumulative GPA of 3.3 and above.

An Eastlake North High School graduate, Krause played under coach Spark Sankel. Krause went on to play collegiate baseball at Florida Southern College (FSC) where he helped the Moccasins win the 1985 and 1988 NCAA Division II National Championship.

Following his collegiate career, Krause had two Spring Training invites with the New York Mets and Minnesota Twins organizations. His biggest success has been placing his players into high profile four-year college programs when their time at Lakeland is finished.