BEREA, OHIO -- Baldwin-Wallace College Athletic Director Kris A. Diaz has announced the hiring of Brian Harrison, most recently an assistant coach at the University of Dayton, as the College's new head baseball coach. Harrison is the 10th head coach in the history of the Yellow Jacket baseball program and succeeds the legendary Bob Fisher '63, who retires after 42 seasons as head coach and 51 years at his alma mater.
Harrison returns to Greater Cleveland where he grew up in Westlake, Ohio and was a prep standout at Lakewood St. Edward High School.
"Brian comes highly regarded from all of his previous coaching stops," said Diaz. "He is an energetic young coach with a passion for the game of baseball, but more importantly a passion for developing his student-athletes both on and off the field.
"Coach Harrison has led programs that value discipline, effort, passion, trustworthiness and communication," said Diaz. "He believes in those core values to develop his baseball student-athletes academically, athletically and socially to prepare them not only for the challenges of college athletics, but also for their future careers and life in general. We look forward to Brian joining the Yellow Jacket family and continuing to build upon the tradition of excellence established within our baseball program by Coach Fisher."
Coach Harrison comes to B-W following a three-year stint at the University of Dayton where his responsibilities included hitting, outfielders and recruiting. While at Dayton, the Flyers improved offensively in almost every category. In 2009, Dayton won its first Atlantic 10 Conference Championship in school history behind the 21st ranked offense in all of NCAA Division I baseball.
Prior to his time at Dayton, Coach Harrison served as the head coach at NAIA Urbana University and turned the Blue Knight program into a winner. After going 7-43 in 2005, he coached the Knights to a 37-21 record and a second-place finish in the American Mideast Conference's South Division and a fourth-place finish in the Region IX Tournament in 2006. For his efforts, Coach Harrison was named AMC South Division Coach of the Year. The 30-win difference was one of the best single-season turnarounds in NAIA history. Coach Harrison did it again in 2007 by leading Urbana to a 32-21 record. That marked the fourth time in five years as a head coach that Harrison's teams amassed 30 or more victories in a single season.
Prior to Urbana, Coach Harrison was head coach at nearby Cuyahoga Community College, located in Parma Heights, Ohio. In his first season in 2003, Coach Harrison's Challengers came within one victory of the school record and had their first winning season in eight years. The team improved its win total from 16 in 2002 to 35 in 2003 and set 15 school records in the process. He also served as an associate scout for the Cincinnati Reds from 2004-2005.
As a standout collegiate player at NAIA Shawnee State University, Coach Harrison had more than 40 career homeruns and 200 RBI. He earned NAIA All-America honors after leading the Bears to a fifth-place finish at the 2000 NAIA College World Series and was later named to the Shawnee State Hall of Fame. He then continued his baseball career at the professional level for two years before deciding to join the coaching ranks.
Coach Harrison, his wife Traci and their son Braden currently reside in Fairborn, Ohio and will be relocating to Greater Cleveland in the near future.
FOR MORE B-W Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Nick Minerd by phone at 440-826-2780 and e-mail at nminerd@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter athttp://twitter.com/bwathletics.
