Montpelier, Vt. - Brian Gallagher, Vermont Mountaineers’ General Manager, announced today that Joe Brown, Head Baseball Coach at SUNY Cortland will be the Mountaineers Field Manager next season. The Mountaineers’ Board of Directors approved the decision and contractual terms at a recent meeting.
The organization conducted a nation-wide search to fill the vacancy as former Mountaineers’ Manager, John Russo announced in the spring that he would be stepping aside after a decade with the Mountaineers. Russo was named the Head Baseball Coach at Hofstra University earlier this year.
Gallagher said the search brought in more than 75 applications which were narrowed to a few serious contenders. Gallagher said Brown had not applied for the position, but was contacted by Gallagher when it was learned that he was available for summer baseball coaching duties. Gallagher said Brown was surprised with my interest in him and, “he was excited to get the chance to coach in Vermont.”
No stranger to the NECBL, Coach Brown managed the Sanford Mainers in 2006 when his team lost to the Mountaineers in the final game of the best-of-three Northern Division Championship series. The Mountaineers went on to capture their first NECBL title. Brown won the NECBL title with the Mainers in 2008.
Coach Brown has led Cortland to a combined 438-122-2 record, 12 NCAA Division III tournament appearances, six World Series showings, and 10 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) titles in his first 12 seasons as the Red Dragons’ head coach since assuming the role in 2000.
His .781 winning percentage (prior to the 2011 season) was the best of any active coach nationally (NCAA Div. I, II or III) with at least 10 years experience, and the third-best all-time among all Div. III coaches with 10 years as a head coach.
In 2011, Cortland qualified for the NCAA Div. III playoffs for the 19th consecutive season - the longest active streak nationally. The Red Dragons finished 36-10, won the SUNYAC title, and tied for ninth nationally after placing second at the NCAA Div. III New York Regional.
Coach Brown has received several honors including being named the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), New York Region Coach of the Year seven times, and the SUNYAC Coach of the Year on four occasions. Eighteen of his players have been chosen as All-Americans, including six who were also selected in the professional baseball draft. In all, 16 of Brown’s players have advanced to play professionally.
Born in Clifton Springs, N.Y., and raised in Maine, Brown moved back to New York and graduated as a three-sport letter-winner from Canandaigua Academy in 1986. He was inducted into the Canandaigua Academy Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. A 1990 graduate of Ithaca College, Brown earned a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education. He played four years of baseball for the Bombers and was a member of the school's 1988 NCAA Division III championship squad. |
