CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — A month-and-a-half after Mike Brown’s retirement as Clarion University baseball coach, the Golden Eagles have a new head man.
(Photo courtesy of Clarion University Athletics)
The school announced Monday it has hired Anthony Williams as the head baseball coach starting immediately.
“His years of head coaching experience at the college level, as well as his ties to professional baseball, make him an ideal fit for our department,” Clarion Interim Athletic Director Wendy Snodgrass said.
Williams last head collegiate coaching job prior to Clarion was at Division III Pitt-Greensburg, which is a member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC). Williams was the head baseball coach at Pitt-Greensburg for the past five seasons — he took UPG to the No. 2 seed in the AMCC playoffs in 2016 — but was not the current coach at the school just outside of Pittsburgh. A new baseball coach was named at UPG in June.
His last managing job was in the Coastal Plain League, a collegiate summer league, with the Fayetteville (N.C.) SwampDogs. He has also spent the past five seasons, starting in March 2011, as a part of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Video Advance Scouting Department helping prepare scouting reports and video for the club.
“I’m pumped to be chosen as the guy that leads the new era of Clarion baseball,” Williams said. “I’m very grateful that Dr. Snodgrass believes in my vision and is willing to put her faith in me to lead these young men. I think everyone is anxious to see what’s possible here and I look forward to developing the group of guys that we have while branding our program and waving our flag out on the recruiting trail.”
Williams mentioned Pitt-Greensburg athletic director Tony Berich and Pirates’ Video Coordinator Kevin Roach as being key to his success.
“I have to thank my former AD Tony Berich at UPG for taking a chance five years ago on an unproven kid and Pirates’ Video Coordinator Kevin Roach for giving me an unbelievable opportunity to work in the big leagues for the last five seasons,” Williams said.
At Pitt-Greensburg, Williams set single-season win records in three different years (2012, 2014, 2015) and is the all-time winningest coach at the school having picked up his 100th career win April 16. He finished his time at the school with a career mark of 107-100-1.
While at Pitt-Greensburg, Williams helped fund raised for field projects as well as an annual spring-break trip, highlighted by the 2016 team’s trip to Puerto Rico as part of the inaugural Roberto Clemente Cup.
Prior to Pitt-Greensburg, Williams was the assistant baseball coach at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, a Division I program, for the 2011 season. He was also the graduate assistant at Frostburg State University in 2009 and 2010.
Williams also had an internship with the Bowie Baysox, the “AA” affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, where he was a Sponsorship Account Executive according to his LinkedIn page from Jan. 2008 to April 2008. He also worked for the Baseball Factory, a recruiting service for high school players from May 2007 to Sept. 2007 and was a part-time assistant baseball coach at Northeast High School, his alma mater, in Pasadena, Md., according to his Frostburg State bio.
Williams started his collegiate career at Slippery Rock in 2004 before transferring to Coppin State, where he played for one season. He ended up back at Slippery Rock, not playing baseball, earning his bachelor’s degree in Sport Management from the school in May 2008. He earned his Master of Business Administration from Frostburg State in 2010.
Williams, according to EYT Media sources, was one of at least four candidates interviewed for the Clarion job including a pair of Clarion baseball alums — James “Pint” Barton, a member of the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame and Lee Weber, the former head coach at Clarion High School — as well as Mark Jackson, the former head coach at a number of collegiate institutions including West Chester, Pitt and Point Park. Jackson’s contract was not renewed at West Chester following the 2011 season according to a story in the West Chester Daily Local.
WILLIAMS’ YEAR-BY-YEAR RECORD AT PITT-GREENSBURG
2012 — 21-19
2013 — 18-23
2014 — 22-20
2015 — 24-19-1
2016 — 22-19
Total — 107-100-1
