Kevin Michael O'Sullivan (born December 27, 1968) is an American college

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 tea ...

coach and former player. O'Sullivan is the current

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the

Florida Gators baseball The Florida Gators baseball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of baseball. Florida competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (S ...

team of the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. O'Sullivan is best known for leading the Gators to the program's first College World Series national championship win in 2017. O'Sullivan also led the program to three consecutive appearances in the College World Series from 2010 to 2012 and four consecutive appearances from 2015 to 2018. He became the winningest coach in program history in 2021, surpassing Dave Fuller's 1975 record of 557 wins.

Early years

O'Sullivan was born December 27, 1968, in

Goshen, New York Goshen is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 13,687 at the 2010 census. The town is named after the Biblical Land of Goshen. It contains a village also called Goshen, which is the county seat of Orange County ...

.GatorZone.com, Baseball Coaching & Support Staff
Kevin O'Sullivan
. Retrieved June 4, 2011. O'Sullivan attended

Jupiter High School Jupiter Community High School, also known as Jupiter High School and JHS, is a public high school in Jupiter, Florida, United States. JHS is a part of the School District of Palm Beach County and is the northernmost high school in Palm Beach Coun ...

in Jupiter, Florida, and played high school baseball for the Jupiter Warriors.

College career

O'Sullivan was a

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

during his college playing career. He played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Florida Community College in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. After his sophomore year, he transferred to the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

, where he played for the Virginia Cavaliers baseball team during his junior and senior years and was a member of the

1991 ACC baseball tournament File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, 1991 Russian presidential election, elected as Russia's first President of Russia, president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated ...

All-Tournament Team. O'Sullivan graduated Florida Community College with an associate's degree in 1989, and the University of Virginia with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in sports medicine in 1991. He later earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in exercise science and wellness from

Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Florida, Dania Beach, Davie, Florida, Davie, Fort Lauderd ...

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

Coaching career

In 1997, O'Sullivan managed the Bourne Braves, a

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

team in the prestigious

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

, and was named coach of the year. His Bourne team featured future major leaguer

Mark Mulder Mark Alan Mulder (born August 5, 1977) is an American former professional baseball player. A left-handed starting pitcher, Mulder pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. He is a two-time All-Sta ...

. On September 1, 1998, O'Sullivan was named an assistant coach at Clemson University. O'Sullivan accepted the baseball head coaching position at the University of Florida on June 13, 2007, replacing Pat McMahon after the Gators failed to receive an NCAA tournament bid in either 2006 or 2007.Brandon Zimmerman,
UF Selects Baseball Coach
," ''Gainesville Sun'' (June 13, 2007). Retrieved September 23, 2009. Florida is O'Sullivan's first head coaching job; he is the twenty-first head coach in the history of the Gators baseball program. He spent the previous nine seasons as an assistant coach for the

Clemson Tigers baseball The Clemson Tigers baseball team represents Clemson University in NCAA Division I college baseball. The team participates in the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tigers are currently coached by head coach Erik Bakich and p ...

team of Clemson University under head coach Jack Leggett, first as the Tigers' pitching coach and recruiting coordinator, and later as Leggett's associate head coach.Pat Dooley,
O'Sullivan's travels led him to UF
" ''The Gainesville Sun'' (June 3, 2011). Retrieved June 4, 2011. During his tenure at Clemson, twenty-nine of the

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 ...

s he coached were selected in the MLB Draft. In each of his four seasons coaching the Gators, O'Sullivan's teams have improved their overall win–loss record and

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) standing.
2011 Florida Gators Baseball Media Supplement
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 109 & 112 (2011). Retrieved June 4, 2011. In 2008, his first season as the Gators' skipper, the team finished 34–24 overall, 17–13 in SEC play, in second place in the SEC Eastern Division standings and third in the overall SEC standings. In 2009, the Gators compiled an overall record of 42–22, 19–11 in the SEC, in first place in the SEC East. O'Sullivan's 2010 Gators finished with an overall win–loss record of 47–17, 22–8 in SEC play, and SEC regular season champions. In each of his first three seasons, his Gators also showed post-season improvement, too: early elimination in the NCAA Regional in 2008; progressing to the NCAA Super Regional in 2009; and a berth in the College World Series in 2010. In 2011, the Gators finished the regular season 41–15 overall, 22–8 in the SEC, and SEC regular season co-champions—sharing the regular season conference championship with the South Carolina Gamecocks and

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's team ...

. After winning the SEC tournament, O'Sullivan's Gators received the No. 2 seed in the 2011 NCAA tournament, and advanced to their second consecutive College World Series, ultimately finishing as the national runner-up. O'Sullivan has also enjoyed recruiting success: his 2009 recruiting class was ranked No. 1 in the country by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

. It was the first time in Gators baseball history that a recruiting class was ranked No. 1.Baseball America Names UF Recruiting Class No. 1
" GatorZone.com (October 20, 2009). Retrieved October 20, 2009. Through O'Sullivan's first four regular seasons as the Gators' head coach, his Gators teams compiled the best conference win–loss record of 80–40 (.667), just ahead of the South Carolina Gamecocks (75–45) and

(65–51).

Personal

O'Sullivan has one daughter, Payton, born in December 2010, and son, Finn, born in September 2012.

Head coaching record

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osullivan, Kevin 1968 births Living people Baseball coaches from Florida Baseball catchers Cape Cod Baseball League coaches Clemson Tigers baseball coaches Florida Atlantic Owls baseball coaches Florida Gators baseball coaches Virginia Cavaliers baseball coaches Virginia Cavaliers baseball players FSC Jacksonville Blue Wave baseball coaches FSC Jacksonville Blue Wave baseball players Minor league baseball coaches People from Goshen, New York People from Jupiter, Florida Baseball players from Florida