Cliff Godwin (born February 2, 1978) is an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

coach and former catcher, who is the current head baseball coach of the East Carolina Pirates. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

at East Carolina from 1998 to 2001 for head coach Keith LeClair.

Early years

Godwin was raised in

Snow Hill, North Carolina Snow Hill is a town in Greene County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,595 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Greene County and is part of the Greenville Metropolitan Area. Snow Hill hosts numerous tennis tournaments ...

. He attended

Greene Central High School Greene Central High School is a public high school located in Greene County, North Carolina. The middle school feeding upcoming students into Greene Central is Greene County Middle School. The school mascot is the Ram. It is one of five schools o ...

in Snow Hill.

Playing career

Godwin enrolled at East Carolina University to play for the Pirates. He red-shirted his freshman season. Over the next four years, he started 126 games as a catcher, and served three years as team co-captain. He batted .322 with 15

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and RBIs as a senior and was named 1st team All- Colonial Athletic Association. In addition to his playing career at East Carolina, Godwin also graduated magna cum laude in 2000 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in management information systems, and went on to earn his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from ECU in 2002. He was a two-time Academic All-American selection during his time as a player. After graduating, Godwin spent two years playing professionally with the

Gateway Grizzlies The Gateway Grizzlies are a professional baseball team based in the St. Louis suburb of Sauget, Illinois, in the United States. The Grizzlies are a member of the West Division of the Frontier League, which is a partner league of Major League Base ...

and the

Evansville Otters The Evansville Otters are a professional baseball team based in Evansville, Indiana. They compete in the West Division of the independent Frontier League. Since their establishment in 1995, the Otters have played at historic Bosse Field, which o ...

of the

Frontier League The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...

Coaching career

After his two years in the Frontier League, Godwin began his coaching career as an assistant at Kinston High School in

Kinston, North Carolina Kinston is a city in Lenoir County, North Carolina, United States, with a population of 21,677 as of the 2010 census. It has been the county seat of Lenoir County since its formation in 1791. Kinston is located in the coastal plains region of ...

, 20 minutes from his hometown of Snow Hill. He spent one season at Kinston before moving on to his first position at the Division I level, with the

UNC Wilmington Seahawks The UNC Wilmington (UNCW) Seahawks are the varsity athletic teams representing the University of North Carolina Wilmington in Wilmington, North Carolina in intercollegiate athletics. The university sponsors eight teams for the men (baseball, bas ...

. He spent two seasons at UNC Wilmington before moving on to Vanderbilt. At Vanderbilt, he served as the Commodores' Director of Baseball Operations before joining

Paul Mainieri Paul Mainieri (born August 29, 1957) is a former baseball coach and second baseman. He played college baseball at LSU, Miami-Dade CC and New Orleans before pursuing a professional baseball career. He then served as the head coach of the St. Th ...

's staff at Notre Dame for the 2005 season. After two seasons at Notre Dame, he followed Mainieri to

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

prior to the 2007 season. In 2008, Godwin's LSU offense hit .306 with 100 home runs and 95 stolen bases. After two seasons with Mainieri at LSU, which included a trip to the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

in 2008, Godwin coached at UCF. With UCF, he helped with numerous highly ranked recruiting classes and helped lead the Knights to the NCAA Tournament in 2011, their first appearance since 2004. Following his stint at UCF, Godwin moved on to Ole Miss, where he served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. In 2014, he helped lead the Rebels to their first College World Series appearance since 1972. On June 25, 2014, Godwin was hired as head coach at his alma mater, East Carolina University, replacing former Pirates head coach Billy Godwin. Godwin's first career game as a head coach came on February 13, 2015, a 3–1 loss to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. His first win came on February 21, 2015, against UNC Greensboro.

Head coaching record

The following is a table of Godwin's yearly records as an NCAA head baseball coach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godwin, Cliff Living people 1978 births Baseball coaches from North Carolina UNC Wilmington Seahawks baseball coaches Vanderbilt Commodores baseball coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball coaches LSU Tigers baseball coaches UCF Knights baseball coaches Ole Miss Rebels baseball coaches East Carolina Pirates baseball coaches East Carolina Pirates baseball players People from Snow Hill, North Carolina Evansville Otters players Gateway Grizzlies players