Postseason experience can mean everything in college baseball. Helping guide a program to Omaha takes a special coach and an emotional voice. As soon as he stepped on campus in the summer of 2008, head coach Terry Rooney's mission was to return UCF to the postseason. And that goal became reality in 2011. In his career, he has helped lead five different universities to the NCAA Regionals, while bringing in nationally-ranked recruiting classes to six different schools.
Head Coach at UCF
Rooney was officially announced as UCF's fifth head baseball coach on June 12, 2008, in the baseball complex's Tradition Room. The press conference took place in front of a packed media contingent, showing that the city of Orlando and Knight fans everywhere were eager for the UCF baseball program to reload.
And the coaching staff immediately hit the recruiting trail that summer. Rooney along with associate head coach Cliff Godwin and assistant coach Jeff Palumbo put together a class for 2010 that featured 21 players, a group that quickly gave UCF some national exposure.
The class eventually was ranked No. 4 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and No. 10 by Baseball America, both of which were the highest rankings from those publications in UCF history. They also marked Rooney's fourth different program where he landed a top-20 class.
To top it off, Rooney's second recruiting class was once again honored by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper as the 20th-best class in the country in the summer of 2010.
That group joined the Knights for the 2011 season and promptly led UCF to its first NCAA Regional appearance since 2004. The Black and Gold posted a 39-23 record for its best season dating back to the 2005 campaign, and also had a school-record 12 wins in C-USA play.
Led by NCBWA All-American designated hitter D.J. Hicks, UCF made itself known throughout the nation by racking up eight victories over ranked opponents, sweeping the season series with Florida and Stetson and also adding key victories against Rice (two), Florida State and Alabama. Along with posting a 2-1 record in the C-USA Championship, the Knights' resume was so strong that they earned a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tallahassee Regional.
On the mound, UCF completed the year with its highest team ERA since 2005 and the staff was built around two sophomores in Brian Adkins (No. 1 starter, 6-5 record), Joe Rogers (closer, nine saves). Meanwhile, Danny Winkler had 92 strikeouts, the most by a UCF pitcher since 2005, Johnny Sedlock (2.00 ERA) and Nick Cicio (2.23 ERA) dominated the bullpen and the Knights combined for five team shutouts.
The newcomers also did not disappoint in 2010, as UCF served as the only school in the country to have five freshmen make at least 35 starts, including three on the infield. The Knights would finish with a 33-22 record and a 10-14 mark in Conference USA. Those 33 wins were highlighted by a 14-game non-conference winning streak to end the campaign, including triumphs over Miami, Florida Atlantic and MEAC champion Bethune-Cookman.
Along the way, the Black and Gold set school and C-USA records with a .343 team batting average and a .435 on-base percentage. Seniors Chris Duffy and Shane Brown were both named Louisville Slugger All-Americans and voted onto the All-C-USA First Team, as the duo both hit over .420 and ranked in the NCAA top-10 in the regular season for highest OBP. Duffy also set the UCF record with 21 homers and 81 RBI during the year.
Meanwhile, Chris Taladay was selected as the C-USA Freshman of the Year, as Taladay, Darnell Sweeney and Ryan Breen had the top three batting averages of all freshmen in the entire conference. On the mound, Rogers earned a spot on the All-Freshman Team thanks to eight saves and 43 strikeouts in 48.0 innings. And Taladay, Breen and Rogers all were selected as Louisville Slugger Freshman All-Americans.
In his first year at the helm of the Knights, Rooney helped the program to numerous firsts during 2009. The team set program marks in single-game attendance average, largest single-game crowd and highest-attended weekend series. UCF recorded its highest combined team GPA and its best cumulative spring GPA as well.
Four student-athletes went on to earn postseason recognition by the league, as Brandon Romans and Shane Brown were selected to the All-C-USA Second Team, and Beau Taylor (a Freshman All-American) and Hicks were placed on the C-USA All-Freshman Team. On the mound, Caleb Graham grabbed the C-USA Pitcher of the Week award by blanking No. 2 Rice in a 5-0 victory, as the staff combined for a 3.92 ERA in its final nine games of the year.
Rooney, LSU and the College World Series
Before the 2009 campaign, Rooney had 12 years of experience as an assistant coach at the Division I level, highlighted by two campaigns at LSU from 2007-08. Serving as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator under head coach Paul Mainieri, Rooney and the Tigers made a remarkable run to the College World Series in 2008. LSU went on to win 23-straight games, including cruising through the conference tournament with a 4-0 record. The team lost just one game in the NCAA Tournament en route to Omaha.
LSU completed the 2008 season with a 49-19-1 record and was ranked as high as No. 2 in the country. Rooney's pitching staff was among the best in the country as well. The Tigers walked just 201 batters while striking out 554, and they combined to post a team ERA of 4.11. They finished in the top 25 in the country in ERA and least amount of walks per nine innings (2.89).
The MLB Draft
A total of 37 of Rooney's pitchers have been selected in the MLB Draft, with 10 taken in the first 10 rounds. Four LSU pitchers were tabbed in the 2008 draft, and five pitchers that he mentored at Notre Dame from 2003-06 also were selected. Meanwhile, 2009 continued Rooney's track record of developing arms as two former Irish hurlers, John Axford and Jeff Manship, debuted in the Major Leagues.
Academics
Rooney's student-athletes have excelled in the classroom as well. A total of 55 UCF players were named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll from 2009-11, and Gil Gomez (`09), Nick Cicio (`10 and '11) and Jeff Dally ('11) earned the Academic Medal with a GPA above 3.75. Meanwhile, UCF has had at least a 3.0 team GPA every semester under Rooney, including the highest fall and sring semesters in school history.
Eight LSU players garnered all-academic honors from the Southeastern Conference in 2008. While at Notre Dame, Rooney helped two players earn ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America recognition.
Recruiting
A native of Fairfax, Va., Rooney is considered one of the nation's premier recruiters. Before coming to UCF, he was involved with nine recruiting classes that were ranked among the national leaders, including the No. 1 class at LSU in 2008 as well as the Tigers' 2009 newcomers which were ranked at No. 20. Meanwhile, Notre Dame's 2006 group was rated as the country's seventh-best class.
Rooney, 37, was promoted to associate head coach at LSU in July 2007. His 2007 recruiting class was selected as the top class in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. The group included nine players who were picked in the Major League Baseball Draft.
Notre Dame's Pitching Coach
Prior to joining the staff at LSU, Rooney was the pitching coach at Notre Dame for three years beginning in the fall of 2003. The Fighting Irish participated in the NCAA Regionals every season with Rooney in the dugout, and the 2004 pitching staff posted a 3.43 ERA, good for ninth in the nation. The 2006 Irish staff, meanwhile, allowed just 18 home runs and set or tied four school pitching records. In two of his three years at ND, Rooney's staffs were ranked in the top 20 in the nation in ERA.
Twelve of Rooney's pitchers at Notre Dame were drafted by MLB clubs. In 2006, three Irish hurlers were selected, including Jeff Samardzija in the fifth round by the Chicago Cubs. In 2004, a pair of hurlers were taken in the top-10 rounds, marking the first time in program history two Fighting Irish pitchers saw their name pop up in the top 10 in the same year.
Days in DeLand
Rooney is no stranger to the Sunshine State, as he served as the pitching coach at Stetson from 2002-03. During his time in DeLand, the Hatters made a pair of appearances in the NCAA Tournament Regionals and posted two 40-victory seasons. Under Rooney's tutelage, four Stetson pitchers garnered All-Atlantic Sun Conference honors and two were taken in the MLB Draft. Rooney's 2006 Stetson recruiting class was ranked 12th nationally by Baseball America, the highest in the history of the program. Three members of that class were selected in the first 10 rounds of the draft.
Prior to 2002
In all, Rooney's previous seven seasons as an assistant before Stetson, Notre Dame and LSU included time serving as pitching coach with three programs - George Washington, James Madison and Old Dominion.
At Old Dominion, Rooney worked with the Monarchs from 2000-01, and the team earned an NCAA Regional berth as a No. 2 seed in 2000. Four of the pitchers he coached at Old Dominion went on to professional baseball, while he recruited and signed Justin Verlander, who is now one of the American League's top hurlers with the Detroit Tigers.
Rooney's two years at James Madison (1998-99) included a pair of nationally-ranked recruiting classes, as he first assumed the role of pitching coach/recruiting coordinator in 1999. Two of his pitchers were later drafted in the first 10 rounds, and six from the `99 class went on to sign pro contracts with three players drafted in the top five rounds. Rooney began his coaching career in 1997 at George Washington.
Rooney has experience coaching in top wood-bat summer leagues as well. He served as the head coach for Waynesboro (Va.) in 1998 when the Generals claimed the Valley League title. Rooney also spent time as an assistant with Valley League champion Staunton (Va.) in 1996 and Cotuit in the Cape Cod League in 1997.
Playing Days and the Personal File
A 1996 Radford graduate with a degree in social science, Rooney pitched for three seasons. He ranks second all-time at the school with 79 appearances and posted an 8-2 career record. Rooney played one season at Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia, compiling a 4-2 mark on the mound.
Rooney has spoken at several coaching clinics throughout the nation, and has authored a video entitled 30 Minutes to Better Pitching - A Championship Workout.
In January 2010, Rooney wrote a 13-page chapter for the book Practice Perfect Baseball by the American Baseball Coaches Association. Entitled Assessing Team Strengths, he helped coaches learn how to analyze their teams by position and develop a practice plan based on their strengths and weaknesses.
Rooney and his wife, Shaun, were married in December of 2007.
Postseason experience can mean everything in college baseball. Helping guide a program to Omaha takes a special coach and an emotional voice. As soon as he stepped on campus in the summer of 2008, head coach Terry Rooney's mission was to return UCF to the postseason. And that goal became reality in 2011. In his career, he has helped lead five different universities to the NCAA Regionals, while bringing in nationally-ranked recruiting classes to six different schools.
Head Coach at UCF
Rooney was officially announced as UCF's fifth head baseball coach on June 12, 2008, in the baseball complex's Tradition Room. The press conference took place in front of a packed media contingent, showing that the city of Orlando and Knight fans everywhere were eager for the UCF baseball program to reload.
And the coaching staff immediately hit the recruiting trail that summer. Rooney along with associate head coach Cliff Godwin and assistant coach Jeff Palumbo put together a class for 2010 that featured 21 players, a group that quickly gave UCF some national exposure.
The class eventually was ranked No. 4 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and No. 10 by Baseball America, both of which were the highest rankings from those publications in UCF history. They also marked Rooney's fourth different program where he landed a top-20 class.
To top it off, Rooney's second recruiting class was once again honored by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper as the 20th-best class in the country in the summer of 2010.
That group joined the Knights for the 2011 season and promptly led UCF to its first NCAA Regional appearance since 2004. The Black and Gold posted a 39-23 record for its best season dating back to the 2005 campaign, and also had a school-record 12 wins in C-USA play.
Led by NCBWA All-American designated hitter D.J. Hicks, UCF made itself known throughout the nation by racking up eight victories over ranked opponents, sweeping the season series with Florida and Stetson and also adding key victories against Rice (two), Florida State and Alabama. Along with posting a 2-1 record in the C-USA Championship, the Knights' resume was so strong that they earned a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tallahassee Regional.
On the mound, UCF completed the year with its highest team ERA since 2005 and the staff was built around two sophomores in Brian Adkins (No. 1 starter, 6-5 record), Joe Rogers (closer, nine saves). Meanwhile, Danny Winkler had 92 strikeouts, the most by a UCF pitcher since 2005, Johnny Sedlock (2.00 ERA) and Nick Cicio (2.23 ERA) dominated the bullpen and the Knights combined for five team shutouts.
The newcomers also did not disappoint in 2010, as UCF served as the only school in the country to have five freshmen make at least 35 starts, including three on the infield. The Knights would finish with a 33-22 record and a 10-14 mark in Conference USA. Those 33 wins were highlighted by a 14-game non-conference winning streak to end the campaign, including triumphs over Miami, Florida Atlantic and MEAC champion Bethune-Cookman.
Along the way, the Black and Gold set school and C-USA records with a .343 team batting average and a .435 on-base percentage. Seniors Chris Duffy and Shane Brown were both named Louisville Slugger All-Americans and voted onto the All-C-USA First Team, as the duo both hit over .420 and ranked in the NCAA top-10 in the regular season for highest OBP. Duffy also set the UCF record with 21 homers and 81 RBI during the year.
Meanwhile, Chris Taladay was selected as the C-USA Freshman of the Year, as Taladay, Darnell Sweeney and Ryan Breen had the top three batting averages of all freshmen in the entire conference. On the mound, Rogers earned a spot on the All-Freshman Team thanks to eight saves and 43 strikeouts in 48.0 innings. And Taladay, Breen and Rogers all were selected as Louisville Slugger Freshman All-Americans.
In his first year at the helm of the Knights, Rooney helped the program to numerous firsts during 2009. The team set program marks in single-game attendance average, largest single-game crowd and highest-attended weekend series. UCF recorded its highest combined team GPA and its best cumulative spring GPA as well.
Four student-athletes went on to earn postseason recognition by the league, as Brandon Romans and Shane Brown were selected to the All-C-USA Second Team, and Beau Taylor (a Freshman All-American) and Hicks were placed on the C-USA All-Freshman Team. On the mound, Caleb Graham grabbed the C-USA Pitcher of the Week award by blanking No. 2 Rice in a 5-0 victory, as the staff combined for a 3.92 ERA in its final nine games of the year.
Rooney, LSU and the College World Series
Before the 2009 campaign, Rooney had 12 years of experience as an assistant coach at the Division I level, highlighted by two campaigns at LSU from 2007-08. Serving as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator under head coach Paul Mainieri, Rooney and the Tigers made a remarkable run to the College World Series in 2008. LSU went on to win 23-straight games, including cruising through the conference tournament with a 4-0 record. The team lost just one game in the NCAA Tournament en route to Omaha.
LSU completed the 2008 season with a 49-19-1 record and was ranked as high as No. 2 in the country. Rooney's pitching staff was among the best in the country as well. The Tigers walked just 201 batters while striking out 554, and they combined to post a team ERA of 4.11. They finished in the top 25 in the country in ERA and least amount of walks per nine innings (2.89).
The MLB Draft
A total of 37 of Rooney's pitchers have been selected in the MLB Draft, with 10 taken in the first 10 rounds. Four LSU pitchers were tabbed in the 2008 draft, and five pitchers that he mentored at Notre Dame from 2003-06 also were selected. Meanwhile, 2009 continued Rooney's track record of developing arms as two former Irish hurlers, John Axford and Jeff Manship, debuted in the Major Leagues.
Academics
Rooney's student-athletes have excelled in the classroom as well. A total of 55 UCF players were named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll from 2009-11, and Gil Gomez (`09), Nick Cicio (`10 and '11) and Jeff Dally ('11) earned the Academic Medal with a GPA above 3.75. Meanwhile, UCF has had at least a 3.0 team GPA every semester under Rooney, including the highest fall and sring semesters in school history.
Eight LSU players garnered all-academic honors from the Southeastern Conference in 2008. While at Notre Dame, Rooney helped two players earn ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America recognition.
Recruiting
A native of Fairfax, Va., Rooney is considered one of the nation's premier recruiters. Before coming to UCF, he was involved with nine recruiting classes that were ranked among the national leaders, including the No. 1 class at LSU in 2008 as well as the Tigers' 2009 newcomers which were ranked at No. 20. Meanwhile, Notre Dame's 2006 group was rated as the country's seventh-best class.
Rooney, 37, was promoted to associate head coach at LSU in July 2007. His 2007 recruiting class was selected as the top class in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. The group included nine players who were picked in the Major League Baseball Draft.
Notre Dame's Pitching Coach
Prior to joining the staff at LSU, Rooney was the pitching coach at Notre Dame for three years beginning in the fall of 2003. The Fighting Irish participated in the NCAA Regionals every season with Rooney in the dugout, and the 2004 pitching staff posted a 3.43 ERA, good for ninth in the nation. The 2006 Irish staff, meanwhile, allowed just 18 home runs and set or tied four school pitching records. In two of his three years at ND, Rooney's staffs were ranked in the top 20 in the nation in ERA.
Twelve of Rooney's pitchers at Notre Dame were drafted by MLB clubs. In 2006, three Irish hurlers were selected, including Jeff Samardzija in the fifth round by the Chicago Cubs. In 2004, a pair of hurlers were taken in the top-10 rounds, marking the first time in program history two Fighting Irish pitchers saw their name pop up in the top 10 in the same year.
Days in DeLand
Rooney is no stranger to the Sunshine State, as he served as the pitching coach at Stetson from 2002-03. During his time in DeLand, the Hatters made a pair of appearances in the NCAA Tournament Regionals and posted two 40-victory seasons. Under Rooney's tutelage, four Stetson pitchers garnered All-Atlantic Sun Conference honors and two were taken in the MLB Draft. Rooney's 2006 Stetson recruiting class was ranked 12th nationally by Baseball America, the highest in the history of the program. Three members of that class were selected in the first 10 rounds of the draft.
Prior to 2002
In all, Rooney's previous seven seasons as an assistant before Stetson, Notre Dame and LSU included time serving as pitching coach with three programs - George Washington, James Madison and Old Dominion.
At Old Dominion, Rooney worked with the Monarchs from 2000-01, and the team earned an NCAA Regional berth as a No. 2 seed in 2000. Four of the pitchers he coached at Old Dominion went on to professional baseball, while he recruited and signed Justin Verlander, who is now one of the American League's top hurlers with the Detroit Tigers.
Rooney's two years at James Madison (1998-99) included a pair of nationally-ranked recruiting classes, as he first assumed the role of pitching coach/recruiting coordinator in 1999. Two of his pitchers were later drafted in the first 10 rounds, and six from the `99 class went on to sign pro contracts with three players drafted in the top five rounds. Rooney began his coaching career in 1997 at George Washington.
Rooney has experience coaching in top wood-bat summer leagues as well. He served as the head coach for Waynesboro (Va.) in 1998 when the Generals claimed the Valley League title. Rooney also spent time as an assistant with Valley League champion Staunton (Va.) in 1996 and Cotuit in the Cape Cod League in 1997.
Playing Days and the Personal File
A 1996 Radford graduate with a degree in social science, Rooney pitched for three seasons. He ranks second all-time at the school with 79 appearances and posted an 8-2 career record. Rooney played one season at Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia, compiling a 4-2 mark on the mound.
Rooney has spoken at several coaching clinics throughout the nation, and has authored a video entitled 30 Minutes to Better Pitching - A Championship Workout.
In January 2010, Rooney wrote a 13-page chapter for the book Practice Perfect Baseball by the American Baseball Coaches Association. Entitled Assessing Team Strengths, he helped coaches learn how to analyze their teams by position and develop a practice plan based on their strengths and weaknesses.
Rooney and his wife, Shaun, were married in December of 2007.