Cliff Godwin, ECU Pirates

Cliff Godwin, who has been a part of nine NCAA Regional and two College World Series appearances coaching at the Division I level, enters his fourth year as head baseball coach of the ECU Pirates.

A four-year letterman for the Pirates, God­win was appointed as ECU’s 16th skipper in the school’s history on June 25, 2014 after completing a three-year stay at the University of Mississippi.

During his three years at the helm of the program, Godwin has guided the ECU Pirates to a pair of NCAA Regional berths, a Super Regional appearance, an American Athletic Conference Tournament title and a 110-72-1 (.604) over­all record. Five players have earned All-America honors, six were named to all-regional teams (five in Charlottesville), eight took home all-conference honors (all first-teamers), nine were selected as AAC Player-of-the-Week, while four were drafted by Major League Baseball teams.

Off the field, his teams have excelled in the classroom by registering a 3.0 GPA or higher in six of seven semesters, including a program-best 3.52 in the Fall of 2017 besting the previous mark of 3.42 (Fall 2015). Nearly 100 student-athletes have been named to the ECU Director of Athletics Honor Roll, while nearly 40 Pirates have earned inclu­sion on The American All-Academic Team maintaining a minimum 3.00 GPA. For the second-straight year, ECU took home The American Team Academic Excellence Award after sporting a 3.27 cumulative GPA for the 2016-17 year. In 2016, Godwin’s club received the American Baseball Coaches As­sociation (ABCA) after registering a collective 3.31 GPA.

In the community, the ECU Pirates have volunteered over 3,000 hours working with programs in the Pitt County area as the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, Team IMPACT, Riley’s Army, Cypress Glenn Re­tirement Community Flood Relief, Red Cross, First Born Community Devel­opment Center and the James, ACES for Autism, Make-A-Wish Foundation and the James and Connie Maynard Children’s Hospital.

On July 29, 2016 Godwin signed a three-year contract extension secur­ing his position through the 2022 season.

Godwin made an immediate impact in 2015 leading the Pirates to a 40-22 record, which included a second-place regular season finish (15-9) in The American. The 2015 American Coach-of-the-Year became the first skipper in program history to win 40 games in his initial season, guided ECU to a conference tournament title in its first year in the league and directed a return to NCAA post-season play – its first since 2012 – as the No. 2 seed in the Coral Gables Regional.