EMPORIA STATE TABS SETH WHEELER AS NEWEST BASEBALL COACH

Baseball | 6/15/2018 1:00:00 PM

June 15, 2018-Emporia State University Director of Athletics Kent Weiser has announced that assistant coach Seth Wheeler will step into the head coaching position for the Hornet baseball team. An introductory press conference will be held on Friday, June 22 at 2:00 p.m. in the Sauder Alumni Center on the Emporia State campus.

"I am incredibly excited to be named the head baseball coach at Emporia State University," said Wheeler. "Growing up in Kansas City I've known about Hornet baseball my entire life and grew up playing for guys from the Dave Bingham coaching tree."

Wheeler has spent the last three seasons as the pitching coach at Emporia State and has worked with the catchers as well.  The Hornets have the second best ERA in the conference at 4.60 over his three seasons after ranking sixth in the league in 2014.  Emporia State has gone 110-52 with three trips to the NCAA Tournament and an MIAA regular season championship with Wheeler in the dugout.

"I've had a chance to watch Coach Wheeler over the past three seasons," said Weiser. "He carries himself with a maturity beyond his years and that really came out during the interview process. I look forward to him carrying on the tradition of Hornet baseball."

He began his coaching career with the Junction City Brigade, a collegiate wood bat team that competes in the Mid-Plains League, the summer after graduating from Central Missouri. Wheeler served as the hitting coach as the team went 26-10, won the MPL and led the league in runs per game.  During the school year he was an assistant coach at Butler CC. He was in charge of catchers and base running for the Grizzlies who led the NJCAA in stolen bases with 157 on the season.

From 2015-17 Wheeler served as the head coach of the Junction City Brigade.  The Brigade won the MPL regular season and tournament titles in 2016 were runners up in both during the 2017 season.  His first year in Junction City the team went 22-15 and Wheeler was selected to be the All Star Game manager. While head coach of the Brigade, three of his players were selected in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft - Max Brown in the 37th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ethan Skender in the 31st round by the Cincinnati Reds and Josh Rolette in the 18th round by the St. Louis Cardinals.  

"I want to thank Kent Weiser, Don Weast and Kristy Bayer for giving me the opportunity to be the next head coach at Emporia State," said Wheeler. "And I need to thank Bob Fornelli for taking a chance on me as an assistant three years ago."

A 2014 graduate of Central Missouri, Wheeler was an honorable mention All-MIAA selection at catcher for the Mules.  He hit .324 as UCM won the MIAA Regular Season Championship his senior year.  He played two years at Butler CC, earning All-Jayhawk Conference honors as a sophomore.

Over the last 50 years Emporia State has only had three losing seasons and during one of those seasons they won the MIAA Tournament and hosted the NCAA Regional.  The four coaches in that time have all won at least 58% of their games. The Hornets have gone to 14 NCAA Tournaments, two NCAA World Series and a national championship game appearance in 2009 after advancing to seven NAIA World Series between 1969-1987 with a national championship in 1978 and runner-up finish in 1987.

The Hornets are set to return four position players that started at least 15 games this year along with the opening day starter at shortstop Josh Norlin, who was injured in the first game of the year.  On the mound seven pitchers are eligible to return led by All-MIAA selection Tanner Cairns, who is 18-3 in his career with the Hornets.

THE WHEELER FILE
Assistant Coach
Emporia State
2018    29-20, 20-16 MIAA
MIAA Tournament Runners Up
NCAA Tournament Appearance
2017    42-13, 29-6 MIAA
MIAA Regular Season Champions
NCAA Tournament Appearance
Central Regional #1 Seed
2016    39-19, 27-12 MIAA
MIAA Regular Season Runners Up
NCAA Tournament Appearance
Butler CC
2015    31-29
Junction City Brigade
2014    26-10

Head Coach
Junction City Brigade
2017    22-15
2016    27-11
2015    23-16

ESU Baseball Coaching History
Coach, Years    Seasons    W-L    %
Bob Fornelli, 2004-18    15    599-266     .692
Brian Embery, 1988-03    16     458-320    .589
Dave Bingham, 1973-87    15     557-226     .711
Jack Smitheran, 1969-72     4     123-61    .668
Larry Cochell, 1967-68     2     54-27     .667
Guy Owen, 1966     1     33-32     .508
Larry Ensminger, 1963-65    4     25-20     .556
Rick Niclai, 1962     1     11-8     .579
Bill Kerr, 1958-1962     5     58-55     .513
Noel McGregor 1957     1     5-6     .455
Chuck Sisson 1956     1     4-4     .500
Joe Pease 1952     1     8-5     .615
John Buckley 1951     1     6-5     .545
Bob Ives 1949-50     2     19-9     .679
No team from 1953-55


###HORNETS###
Coach Wheeler will be out of state and not available to the media until Thursday's press conference. The press conference will be available live on The MIAA Network at themiaanetwork.com/esuhornets.