Now in his 14th season as head coach of the Mountaineers, Greg Van Zant has elevated the West Virginia baseball program into the national spotlight. The former Mountaineer player now ranks second in WVU baseball history with 378 wins at West Virginia.
In his time as head coach, Van Zant has accomplished much at West Virginia in winning BIG EAST championships (regular season and tournament), earning an NCAA Tournament appearance and churning out 39 players who have been drafted or signed contracts with Major League Baseball organizations, including 22 pitchers.
Van Zant has produced a Major League pitcher in reliever Dustin Nippert, who currently pitches for the Texas Rangers. He has also produced three All-Americans, the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year, the BIG EAST Player of the Year, 41 all-conference players, a first round draft pick and two Academic All-Americans.
He has been named BIG EAST Coach of the Year twice and ABCA East Region Coach of the Year once.
This past season, Van Zant led WVU to a 29-22 record. Senior left fielder Justin Jenkins earned third team All-American honors while producing a 38 game hitting streak, 10th longest in the history of college baseball. Jenkins later signed as a pre-draft free agent with the Cleveland Indians. Four other Mountaineers were selected in the pro draft in 2007.
Van Zant guided the Mountaineers to a 36-22 record in 2006 and the program's sixth BIG EAST tournament appearance. WVU won its first 17 home games and owned the nation's longest winning streak at that time. With the final three home wins at the end of the 2005 season, the 20-game home winning streak set a school record.
The 25-4 record opening the season was the best start to a campaign in 40 years and the team garnered the school's first national ranking since 1982. The 2006 squad put a strong offense on display as they finished the season with a .339 batting average, which was good for second in all of Division I.
2005 was a special season for the skipper as he grabbed win No. 300 in a 15-1 victory over Savannah State on April 6. The year also marked the first time in school history that three former Mountaineers were playing Major League Baseball at the same time. Steve Kline of the Baltimore Orioles, Scott Seabol of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Dustin Nippert of the Arizona Diamondbacks were all coached by Van Zant.
The West Virginia native has guided WVU teams to 378 wins, good for second-most in school history. Van Zant has been chosen four times to participate in the YES (Youth Education through Sports) Clinic in Omaha, Neb., at the College World Series. He has worked at the Omaha Clinic in 1999, 2004, 2005 and 2007.
In 2003, Van Zant orchestrated one of the most exciting seasons in team history, as a Mountaineer team slated to finish near the bottom of the conference battled its way to a 36-19 overall record and an 18-6 conference mark. For his efforts, the coach was named BIG EAST coach of the year for the second time in his career.
WVU produced a school-record six draft picks in the 2001 season as Van Zant reached 200 wins faster than any other coach in school history.
In 1999, Van Zant directed West Virginia to a 29-28 mark and the school's fourth straight BIG EAST tournament appearance. Included among those 29 wins was an 8-6 victory over No. 9-ranked Ohio State at Hawley Field.
In 1998, Van Zant's Mountaineers produced a 37-17-1 record and advanced to the final four of the BIG EAST tournament. Four players were drafted off that team including 19th-round pick Brad Elwood. His Mountaineers ranked among the NCAA's best in hitting (second) with a .358 team batting mark, pitching (22nd) with a 4.49 ERA and scoring (28th) at 9.02 runs per game. Outfielder and former WVU assistant Joe McNamee became the coach's second All-America player in two seasons.
A year earlier in 1997, WVU's skipper led West Virginia to its second BIG EAST divisional title in as many years. Owning a 36-19 overall mark, West Virginia registered the third-most wins in school history. His top pitcher, Chris Enochs, became the school's first All-America selection since 1964 and was selected in the first round (11th overall selection) of the Major League Draft. For Van Zant's efforts, he was honored as the 1997 BIG EAST coach of the year.
West Virginia's 1996 squad posted a 33-25 record, BIG EAST regular and postseason championships, and a third-place finish at the 1996 Atlantic Regional at Clemson, S.C. His club defeated nationally rated Tennessee and Georgia Southern in the NCAA tournament, securing the school's first wins against nationally ranked teams since 1982.
West Virginia was one of just three schools from the nation's 10 major baseball conferences to win the regular and postseason titles that season, and West Virginia's 2-0 start in the NCAA tournament was the best in school history.
By virtue of his club's 1996 BIG EAST tournament championship, the coach has now participated in the NCAA tournament as a player (1982), an assistant (1990 and 1994) and a head coach.
The Mountaineers finished the 1996 campaign ranked No. 36 by USA Today/Baseball Weekly, the highest West Virginia has ever finished in that poll. He was named the ABCA/East region coach of the year, one of eight regional coaches honored nationwide.
He took over the Mountaineer program in December of 1994, a month after the death of longtime mentor Dale Ramsburg. Like Ramsburg, Van Zant has been active among the coaching fraternity as he just finished his second term as president of the BIG EAST Baseball Coaches Association. In 2005, Van Zant was chosen as a member of the NCAA Division I Baseball East Region Advisory Committee and continues to serve in that capacity.
Van Zant began his association with college baseball as a four-year starting third baseman at WVU from 1980-83, helping the Mountaineers to the NCAA regional playoffs in 1982. He is probably best remembered for a double play that he turned in the ninth inning to secure a 7-5 victory over Rutgers in the Eastern Eight Championship. That team finished No. 16 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball and came within two games of advancing to the College World Series.
After graduation, he worked for Ford Motor Company from 1985-87 before accepting a coaching position at Georgia Southern under legendary coach Jack Stallings.
During his three years at Georgia Southern, he was responsible for infielders and marketing baseball. In his final season at Georgia Southern in 1990, Van Zant was a part of an Eagle team that won 50 games and advanced to the College World Series. Among the prominent players at Georgia Southern during Van Zant's stay were future Major League players like pitcher Joey Hamilton, catcher Todd Greene, and shortstop Chris Petersen.
Van Zant spent the summer of 1990 coaching in the Cape Cod League with the Falmouth Commodores, where he helped instruct St. Louis Cardinals first round pick Alan Watson. Later that summer, he returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach.
Serving as Ramsburg's top assistant and recruiting coordinator, Van Zant helped recruit the players that produced an NCAA regional berth in 1994. He was also a part of several improvements to the WVU baseball program. They include re-establishing the alumni game played every fall since 1991 and the construction of an eight-foot outfield fence with advertising and 30-foot foul poles.
As head coach, the improvements have continued. The most notable are the constant improvements to Hawley Field, including the installation of lights, initiating the Mountaineer Baseball Marathon Game, which has raised thousands of dollars toward improving the baseball program and the Mountaineers' all Division I schedule. Recently Van Zant has helped raise fund for a new outfield drainage system, state-of-the-art infield, new warning track and a major league style batters eye for Hawley Field.
The hard-working coach is a 23-year member of the American Baseball Coaches Association and has served two terms as president of the BIG EAST Baseball Coaches Association.
Van Zant has also maintained the respectable rapport with professional scouts established under Ramsburg; West Virginia has had 61 players selected in the Major League draft since it was first initiated in 1965 (in just 13 seasons, Van Zant has coached over half of those drafted at West Virginia). Four of those players have gone on to play in the big leagues.
A 1984 WVU graduate in industrial engineering, Van Zant earned master's degrees in sport management in 1988 and business administration in 1989 from Georgia Southern. The Williamson, W.Va., native received the Rawlings Baseball post-graduate scholarship in 1991 and 1992.
Five years ago, he was inducted into the Williamson High Hall of Fame.
Van Zant resides in Morgantown with his wife, the former Leslie Jones of Farmington, W.Va. |
