Matt Senk, Stony Brook Seawolves

Matt Senk is in his 27th season as head coach of the Stony Brook Seawolves. A former player at Cortland State in New York, Senk coached at two different Catholic high schools in the New York City area before being named head coach of the Seawolves in February 1991. At the time he took the position, Stony Brook was a Division III program and the job was part-time. Nevertheless, Senk wanted nothing more than to coach at the collegiate level and has emerged as one of the premier coached in college baseball. When he took the job, the Stony Brook baseball program had notched only six winning seasons since 1966. In his first 26 seasons as the Seawolves’ head coach, Senk has posted 21 winning seasons and won 30 or more games 12 rimes. He also guided the program to the Division I level in 2000, yet continued to succeed despite playing greater competition. The Seawolves gained national recognition in 2012 when Stony Brook advanced to College World Series in Omaha. That same year Senk was named the NCBWA National Coach of the Year and was named America East Coach of the Year for the second of the three times he has won the award. The 2012 Seawolves won the America East Championship for the fourth time, defeated Miami (FL) and then won three consecutive elimination games to take the Coral Gables Regional. Then in front of a national television audience, Stony Brook knocked off six-time national champion LSU in the Baton Rouge Super Regional to advance to its first-ever College World Series. SBU was just the second No. 4 seed to ever advance to the College World Series and became the first Northeast school since 1986 to reach Omaha. At season’s end, Senk’s squad had recorded a program record and NCAA-leading 52 wins. Stony Brook has proven to be the class of the America East over the last nine years, winning four America East tournament championships and four of the last six America East regular season titles. In 2015, Senk led the Seawolves to first place with an 18-4-1 record in America East, continuing an incredible stretch of dominance over the conference. Senk also guided Stony Brook back to the NCAA Tournament in 2015 by claiming the America East Tournament title and advancing to the Fort Worth Regional.