Kevin Cooney (born August 12, 1950) is an American former

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 pl ...

coach who was the head coach at

Montclair State Montclair State University (MSU) is a Public university, public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls, New Jersey, Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, ...

from 1984–1987 and Florida Atlantic from 1988–2008. Under Cooney, the teams combined to appear in 11 NCAA tournaments, including six in Division I. Montclair State won the Division III National Championship in 1987. Individually, Cooney was named the TAAC Coach of the Year in 1999.

Playing career

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

native, Cooney attended

Montclair State University Montclair State University (MSU) is a Public university, public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls, New Jersey, Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, ...

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. As ...

. He played baseball for the Red Hawks from 1970–1972. A pitcher, Cooney had a career 18-3 record, 2.35

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, and 164 strikeouts. In 1972, his final season at Montclair, the program appeared in its first NCAA tournament, finishing third in the East Regional. Following the season, the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

selected him in the 11th round of the

MLB Draft The first-year player draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lo ...

. Cooney played two professional seasons, advancing as high as Class A

Wisconsin Rapids Wisconsin Rapids is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, Wisconsin. The population was 18,877 at the 2020 census. The city also forms one of the core areas of the United States Census Bureau's Marshfield-Wisconsin Rapids Micropolit ...

before a shoulder injury ended his playing career. Over the two seasons, Cooney compiled a 19-11 record and a 3.43 ERA.

Coaching career

Montclair State

Following his playing career, Cooney returned to Montclair State as an assistant under

Clary Anderson Clarence Oscar "Clary" Anderson (July 7, 1911 – August 19, 1988) was an American football and baseball player and coach. He was the head baseball and football coach for the Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. In seven sea ...

, whom he had played for a few years earlier. Cooney worked as an assistant from 1975–1976. The Red Hawks made the NCAA tournament in both seasons. Anderson left to become the head coach at

Fairleigh Dickinson Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 degree programs to its students. In addition to its tw ...

after the 1976 season; Cooney also left Montclair and worked as a high school teacher and coach in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When Montclair's next head coach, Fred Hill, left for

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

following the 1983 season, Cooney returned as the Red Hawks' head coach. In Cooney's four seasons at Montclair (1984–1987), the Red Hawks went 138-50-2, reached four Division III College World Series, and won the 1987 national championship. In 1987, the team went 3-0 to win its regional, defeating North Adams State, 11-5, and Upsala, 17-2 and 16-15 in 10 innings. At that year's College World Series, Montclair went 4-0 with two extra inning wins to win the title. It beat Eastern Connecticut,

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

, and UW-Oshkosh to advance to the championship game, where it defeated Oshkosh, 13-12 in 10 innings. During Cooney's stint at Montclair, three players were selected in the

Major League Baseball Draft The first-year player draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lo ...

, including seventh-round selection Dan Olsson in 1985.

Florida Atlantic

Division II

Prior to the 1988 season, Division II Florida Atlantic (FAU) hired Cooney to replace

Steve Traylor Steve Traylor (born February 15, 1951) is an American former college baseball and basketball coach. In basketball, he was the head coach of Greensboro College. In baseball, he was the head coach at Florida Atlantic, Duke, and Wofford. Traylor ...

, who had left to become the head coach at

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

. Cooney held the position for 21 seasons, leading FAU to Division I, seven NCAA tournaments, and a 742-480-5 overall record. For Cooney's first six seasons, 1988–1993, FAU played as an independent school in Division II, though its schedule included a mix of Division I and Division II teams. In 1991, Cooney hired John McCormack, who would remain with the program as an assistant through the end of Cooney's tenure. He also opened the

FAU Baseball Stadium FAU Baseball Stadium is a baseball venue located in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. It has been home to the Florida Atlantic Owls baseball team since 1991.

in 1991. The Blue Wave's best season during this stretch was 1993, when it went 41-17 and reached an NCAA Regional championship game.

Division I

For the 1994 season, FAU transitioned to Division I, joining the Trans America Athletic Conference. After being ineligible for the postseason in 1994, the program made its first Division I postseason in 1995, finishing fourth in the TAAC to qualify for the TAAC Tournament. As the fourth seed, the Blue Wave won their first game against top-seeded FIU, then lost consecutive games to

Stetson Stetson is a brand of hat manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company. "Stetson" is also used as a generic trademark to refer to any campaign hat, in particular, in Scouting. John B. Stetson gained inspiration for his most famous hats when he ...

and UCF and was eliminated. FAU reached its first Division I tournament in 1999, one of its best seasons under Cooney. It went 51-5 in the regular season; the season included a 34-game win streak from February to April that tied

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

's NCAA record.

Pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Todd Moser was named the A-Sun Player of the Year. At the TAAC Tournament at

Osceola County Stadium Osceola County Stadium is an outdoor sports venue located in Kissimmee, Florida, part of the wider Orlando City SC Training Ground at Osceola Heritage Park. Originally a baseball park, it was converted into a soccer-specific stadium by Orland ...

, the Blue Wave went 1-2 but qualified for the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid. At the Coral Gables Regional, the team lost its opener to FIU, then defeated Bethune-Cookman and FIU before losing to host

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

in the regional championship. The Blue Wave returned to the NCAA tournament in

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, then made their deepest postseason run under Cooney in

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. After a 40-15 regular season in which they placed second in the A-Sun, the Blue Wave went 3-2 at the A-Sun Tournament, losing to top-seeded UCF in the title game. They were then awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the third seed in the Tuscaloosa Regional. Both lower seeds won their regional openers (FAU 16-11 over

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

), setting up a 1-0 game with Southeast Missouri State that FAU won to reach the regional championship round. There, they lost one game to host

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

, 7-2, but defeated the Crimson Tide in the decisive seventh game to advance to the

best-of-three There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

super regional round. In the Atlanta Super Regional,

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

swept the Blue Wave in two games. The 2002 appearance was the first of four consecutive NCAA tournaments for the program, but it did not advance past the regionals in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, or

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. (Of Cooney's six Division I Tournament appearances at FAU, 2002 was the only year in which the Blue Wave were not placed at the Coral Gables Regional, hosted by nearby Miami.) In

, FAU won its only A-Sun Tournament under Cooney; Rusty Brown was named the tournament MVP. During Cooney's 21 seasons at FAU, the program had 58 selections in the

. The highest was

Jeff Fiorentino Jeffrey Philip Fiorentino (born April 14, 1983) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder who played for the Baltimore Orioles and Oakland Athletics between 2005 and 2009. His nickname is '' Screech'' due to his resemblance to the D ...

, a future Major Leaguer selected 79th overall in 2004. Other of Cooney's players to appear in Major League Baseball were Tim Harikkala,

Carmen Cali Carmen Salvatore Cali (born November 2, 1978) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. Cali graduated in 1997 from Naples High School in Naples, Florida, after lettering and starring four years in both football and baseball. He went on t ...

, Tommy Murphy, Michael Crotta,

Mickey Storey Mickey Charles Storey (born March 16, 1986) is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current manager of the Houston Astros' Triple-A affiliate, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys. He has pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the H ...

, and

Jeff Beliveau Jeffrey Ryan Beliveau (born 17 January 1987) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is currently a free agent. He previously pitched in MLB for the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, and Cleveland Indians. As an amateur, ...

. FAU moved to the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

for Cooney's final two seasons (2007–2008). The Owls (renamed following the 2005 season) had two 30-win seasons and made two Sun Belt tournaments, but did not qualify for the NCAA tournament in either season. Following the 2008 season, Cooney announced his retirement.

Head coaching record

The following is a table of Cooney's yearly records as a collegiate head baseball coach.

Personal

Cooney has four children. His oldest son, Jim, pitched for Cooney from 1999–2002, was drafted by the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

, and played three years of professional baseball. Since retiring from coaching, Cooney has moved to

Sweetwater, Tennessee Sweetwater is a city in Monroe and McMinn counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the most populous city in Monroe County. The population was 5764 at the 2010 census and 6,312 at the 2020 census. Sweetwater is the home of the Craighead C ...

and started business ventures in

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

antiques An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

, and Christmas tree growing. In 2012, Cooney was inducted into the FAU Hall of Fame.

Notes

References

External links

Cooney's 2008 weekly column
for CollegeBaseballInsider.com *

* Part
One
an
Two
of Cooney's FAU Hall of Fame Induction Speech at Youtube.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooney, Kevin 1950 births People from New Jersey Montclair State Red Hawks baseball players Melbourne Twins players Orlando Twins players Wisconsin Rapids Twins players High school baseball coaches in the United States Montclair State Red Hawks baseball coaches Florida Atlantic Owls baseball coaches Living people