07/14/2015
SUNY Cortland baseball head coach Joe Brown has been named the 2015 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Diamond NCAA Div. III National Coach of the Year after leading the Red Dragons to a 45-4 record and the program’s first national title.
Brown is ABCA National Coach of the Year for the first time. Last month, he earned a similar award from the web site D3baseball.com, and he was one of eight finalists for the 2015 Skip Bertman National Coach of the Year Award (which was won by Louisiana State University's Paul Mainieri).
In addition, Brown was chosen as the ABCA Div. III New York Region Coach of the Year. He received that award for the 10th time overall and the fifth time in six years.
Cortland made its 23rd straight NCAA tournament appearance - the longest active streak in Div. III and the fourth longest among all NCAA schools behind Div. I programs Miami (Fla.), Florida State and Cal St. Fullerton. The Red Dragons advanced to their 13th World Series with a 4-0 record at the NCAA Div. III New York Regional, then won the national title with five consecutive wins in Grand Chute, Wis.
Brown’s overall head coaching record in 16 seasons, all at Cortland, is 598-156-3 (.792). He has the best winning percentage of any active coach nationally in NCAA Division I, II or III with at least 10 years experience and the third-best winning percentage among all Division III coaches with 10 years experience.