Scott Berry, Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles

Scott Berry is in his eighth season as head coach of the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and his 16th campaign as a member of the USM coaching staff. In 2017, the Golden Eagles have gotten off to a 24-6 start, including an 8-1 record in Conference USA, after winning the league in 2016. Berry’s resume at USM includes includes two Conference USA regular-season crowns, two league tournament titles, three trips to the C-USA tournament championship game, three NCAA tournament regional berths and one C-USA Coach of the Year award.

Berry was a catcher at Crowder College before an injury ended his playing career . He turned his attention to coaching while attending Southwest Missouri State. His career took another turn shortly thereafter when, as he discusses in the College Baseball Now podcast, Berry met Corky Palmer at the ABCA Convention in Nashville. Berry joined Palmer’s coaching staff at Meridian Community College a few months later and would eventually become head coach at Meridian, after Palmer departed for Southern Mississippi. In his four-year stint as the head coach at Meridian, from 1997-2000, Berry guided the program to two trips to the National Junior College World Series. His teams compiled an impressive record of 185-58, including two seasons of 50 wins or more, and spent the entire time in the top 10 of the national polls. He had more than 25 players sign NCAA Division I scholarships and had, at that time, nine former players in the professional ranks.

As an assistant at Southern Miss, Berry coached the team’s hitters and pitchers at different times, and had tremendous success in both areas. He was an assistant on the Golden Eagles team that advanced to the College World Series in 2009 and then took over the program a year later, in 2010, after Palmer retired. In his first season as head coach, Berry’s USM team won the C-USA Tournament (the first time the Golden Eagles had done so since 2003), and then returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2016 after a four-year absence.