CONWAY, SC (CCU Athletics) – Coastal Carolina University baseball head coach Kevin Schnall was named College Coach of the Year by Baseball America, the first rookie head coach to ever receive the award.
From Baseball America’s Article:
Kevin Schnall’s instructions weren’t printed on paper.They were passed down in bus rides, in batting cage conversations, in quiet late-night moments after losses. Gary Gilmore didn’t hand Schnall a manual when he retired as Coastal Carolina head coach last summer.Instead, he handed Schnall something heavier: A program. A culture. A standard.“Put together the best team,” Schnall said Gilmore taught him. “Sometimes money doesn’t always buy that.”This spring, Schnall built that team and took it all the way to the College World Series championship series.
Read the article here.
In his first year as a head coach, Schnall guided Coastal Carolina to 56 wins, a Sun Belt title, a sweep at Auburn in super regionals and a 26-game winning streak that carried the Chanticleers to the national championship series for the second time in program history.
And now, he’s Baseball America’s 2025 College Coach of the Year—the first ever to receive the honor in his debut season as a head coach.
In his first year at the helm of the Chanticleers’ program, Schnall led Coastal Carolina to a nation-leading and school record 56 wins, a Sun Belt Conference Championship, Sun Belt Tournament Championship, Conway Regional Championship, Auburn Super Regional Championship and a 3-0 run in Omaha to the Men’s College World Series Championship Final.
Over the last quarter of the season, Coastal posted a 26-game winning streak, the fourth-longest winning streak in DI in the last five years.
Schnall is believed to be the fourth head coach to lead his team to the MCWS in his first year as a college head coach, joining Louisville’s Dan McDonnell (2007), Florida State’s Mike Martin (1980) and Texas’ Cliff Gustafson (1968), and last Friday’s victory over Louisville made him the only one of those four to win his Omaha debut.
That would make Schnall the only first-year head coach to ever win his first eight NCAA Tournament games. His 56 wins this season were the most in Division I history by a rookie head coach. Only CSUN’s Mike Batesole (52 wins in 1996) and Florida State’s Mike Martin (51 wins in 1980) also won 50 or more.
Schnall was also named coach of the year by the Sun Belt Conference and Perfect Game.
The American Baseball Coaches Association and ATEC also named him as the 2025 Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.
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