Mik Aoki (born October 7, 1968) is a Japanese 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 tea ...

coach and former player. He is the head baseball coach at Morehead State University. Aoki played at

Davidson College Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowan� ...

for coach Jim Stoeckel. Aoki has acted as head coach of the Columbia Lions baseball team,

Boston College Eagles baseball The Boston College Eagles baseball team represents Boston College in NCAA Division I college baseball. The team participates in the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The head coach of the Eagles is Mike Gambino, a 2000 alumnu ...

team and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team from 2011 season to 2019.

Early life

Aoki was born in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and raised in

Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth (; historically known as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as ...

. He attended Milton Academy prior to enrolling at

. Aoki earned four varsity letters while starting for three seasons for the

Wildcats The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...

at catcher, second base, and third base. He was a prolific hitter and still ranks among career leaders in several offensive categories. Aoki hit two grand slams in 1988, one of just six Davidson players to hit two in one season. He played one professional season for

HCAW HCAW (formerly known as Mr. Cocker HCAW ( sponsored name)), in full ''Honkbalclub Allen Weerbaar'', is a Dutch baseball and softball club from Bussum. As of 2021 the club numbers about 400 members, including 270 players, making it one of the lar ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in 1991.

Coaching career

Aoki began his coaching career as head coach at Manchester Community College in

Manchester, Connecticut Manchester is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 59,713. The urban center of the town is the Manchester census-designated place, with a population of 36,379 at the 202 ...

. After one season, he became an assistant at

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, where he stayed for two years and earned a master's degree. He then moved to

Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...

for four seasons before landing his first Division I head coaching job at

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

Columbia. In his five seasons, the Lions were 87–140, including twenty or more wins in each of Aoki's last three seasons. Columbia had not won twenty or more games in a season since 1987. On June 8, 2019, Notre Dame announced that they would not renew Aoki's contract for the 2020 season. On July 3, 2019, Aoki was named the head baseball coach at Morehead State University.

Head coaching record

The below table shows Aoki's yearly records as an NCAA head baseball coach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aoki, Mik Baseball people from Yokohama People from Milton, Massachusetts Living people Ohio University alumni Manchester Cougars baseball coaches Ohio Bobcats baseball coaches Dartmouth Big Green baseball coaches Columbia Lions baseball coaches Boston College Eagles baseball coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball coaches 1968 births Davidson Wildcats baseball players Baseball coaches from Massachusetts Morehead State Eagles baseball coaches Japanese expatriate baseball players in the Netherlands HCAW players American expatriate baseball players in the Netherlands Japanese emigrants to the United States American people of Japanese descent Baseball players from Massachusetts People from Plymouth, Massachusetts Milton Academy alumni