| Brian O'Connor |
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In just three years in Charlottesville, Brian O'Connor has taken the Virginia baseball program to a new level, producing one of the most up-and-coming college baseball programs in the country. O'Connor enters his fourth season at the helm of a Virginia program, which is no longer a "sleeping giant" in college baseball. One of the exciting young coaches in the nation, O'Connor is the quickest coach in school history to 100 career wins. His Virginia teams have three 40-win seasons, three straight trips to NCAA Regionals, a second place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference and an appearance in the ACC Tournament Championship game.
He has compiled a 132-50 overall mark and a 53-29 ACC record in three years at Virginia. O'Connor was named a 2006 College Baseball Foundation Coach of the Year and earned his third consecutive VaSID Coach of the Year honor in 2006. He was named the 2004 ACC Coach of the Year, becoming just the second UVa head baseball coach to ever receive the honor. He also was named the 2004 Atlantic Region Coach of the Year as well as being listed as a finalist for the 2004 CollegeBaseballInsider.com National Coach of the Year. O'Connor has had 11 players earn All-ACC honors while two players have been named ACC Players of the Year - Joe Koshansky (2004) and Sean Doolittle (2006). Under O'Connor, Doolittle, Koshansky and Ryan Zimmerman both garnered All-American honors while UVa has also had seven freshman All-Americans in the last two seasons. Also, 10 players in the last three years have been drafted in the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft under O'Connor including Zimmerman, who was the fourth overall pick in the first round by the Washington Nationals in 2005. Zimmerman and Doolittle were also the first players under O'Connor to play on USA Baseball National Teams, where Zimmerman led the USA to the gold medal at the World University Games in 2004 and Doolittle helped the USA to a gold medal in the summer of 2006.
O'Connor was named the head baseball coach at Virginia on July 8, 2003. In his first season as head coach, he guided UVa to one of the most successful and storied seasons ever in the history of the baseball program. He led the Cavaliers to a 44-15 overall record and an 18-6 mark in the ACC. The 18 wins were the most ever by a Cavalier team in league play at the time. For the first time in school history, Virginia hosted an NCAA Regional in its own backyard when Davenport Field at the UVa Baseball Stadium played host to the Charlottesville Regional. It was Virginia's fourth NCAA appearance in school history. O'Connor directed the Cavaliers to a second place finish in the league in 2004. Virginia swept five three-game series over conference foes for the first time ever, including a three-game sweep over ACC-favorite Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Ga., for the first time in school history. The Cavaliers also swept Clemson in three games for the first time in 32 years (since 1972). Several individual records were also established in 2004 under O'Connor as Koshansky set the single-season school record for most RBI (67), Zimmerman set the single-season school record for hits (90) and at-bats (249), Mark Reynolds tied the single-season school record for most runs scored (60), Casey Lambert tied the single-season school record for most saves (8) and Andrew Dobies tied the single-season school record for most games started as a pitcher (16).
O'Connor followed up the 2004 season by going 41-20 overall and 14-14 in the ACC in 2005. As the No. 7 seed in the conference tournament, he led the Cavaliers to the championship knocking off three ranked opponents along the way including two wins over No. 12 Clemson and a win over No. 18 NC State. During the 2005 season, Virginia posted nine wins over ranked opponents including a three-game sweep of No. 4 Georgia Tech in Charlottesville, which was his second straight sweep of the Yellow Jackets during the regular season. The Cavaliers led the ACC in team ERA (2.74) for the second straight year while closer Casey Lambert broke his own single-season record with 14 saves. Zimmerman also broke his own single-season record with 92 hits.
But it was O'Connor's 2006 team that has left the biggest mark on the program thus far. The Cavaliers topped the old school record for wins by winning 47 games on their way to a 47-15 mark. UVa also topped its record for conference wins going 21-9 in a tough ACC finishing third overall and just one game behind divisional champion, North Carolina. Virginia hosted the second NCAA Charlottesville Regional in 2006. Four players were named All-ACC led by Doolittle, who was the ACC Player of the Year. Four Cavalier freshmen were named Freshmen All-Americans, which tied for the most in the antion. The end result was the best regular season finish ever at Virginia by turning in a mark of 45-11 overall. The Cavaliers set a school record for best winning percentage in a single season (.758), ranked third nationally in team ERA (3.04) and 19th nationally in batting average (.322).
O'Connor's success has spilled over into the community as attendance records the last three years have been at an all-time high with the Cavaliers playing in front of several sellout crowds en route to finishing ranked in the Top 40 in the nation in both total home attendance and average home attendance.
The Cavaliers have become a fixture in the Top-25 polls, highlighted by UVa's highest national ranking ever at No. 5 in the nation in 2006. Virginia is preseason picked No. 9 by Baseball America and No. 10 by Collegiate Baseball in 2007.
O'Connor has sustained his success with good recruiting classes. Two of his last three recruiting classes have ranked in the Top 40 in the nation including a No. 12 ranking of the 2004 class and a No. 8 ranking of the 2005 class.
O'Connor brought a wealth of baseball to Charlottesville when he arrived and developed Virginia into a nationally-prominent program. He came to Virginia after spending nine seasons as a member of the coaching staff at Notre Dame (1995-2003). At Notre Dame, O'Connor served as an assistant coach for the Fighting Irish from 1995-2001 before being promoted to associate head coach in 2001. He was named the 2001 National Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and Baseball America, and was also named the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2003.
While at Notre Dame, O'Connor worked with the Fighting Irish's pitchers and also served as the program's recruiting coordinator. As Notre Dame's recruiting coordinator, he led the effort that landed a nine-member group ranked as the No. 1 recruiting class in the country in 2001, as well as the sixth- ranked recruiting class in 2003 according to Baseball America.
During O'Connor's nine years at Notre Dame, the Irish compiled an overall record of 399-160-1 (.713), won six conference championships and made six trips to the NCAA Tournament. The last three Notre Dame baseball teams assisted by O'Connor were among the most successful in the school's history. The Irish compiled an overall record of 45-18 in 2003, won the Big East Conference Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. In 2002, Notre Dame had an overall record of 50-18, won the Big East Championship and advanced to the College World Series. The 2001 Irish team was 49-13-1, ranked number one in the nation at midseason and participated in the NCAA Tournament.
O'Connor - who pitched on Creighton's 1991 College World Series team - tutored 17 eventual professional baseball pitchers, including 13 Major League Draft selections. He has a proven track record of developing pitchers into top-level prospects, including a pair of first-round selections - Brad Lidge in 1998 and fellow right-hander Aaron Heilman in 2001 - who weren't even drafted in the first 40 rounds coming out of high school (Lidge was a 42nd-round pick, Heilman a 55th-rounder). Lidge has pitched for the Houston Astros from 2002-05 while Heilman made his major league debut with the New York Mets from 2003-2005.
A native of Council Bluffs, Iowa, O'Connor, 35, is a 1993 graduate of Creighton University. As a pitcher on the Creighton baseball team, he posted a career record of 20-13 with seven saves and a 3.78 ERA.
After graduating from Creighton with a bachelor's degree in marketing, O'Connor was selected in the 29th round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. He posted a 4-2 record with a 4.03 earned run average for Martinsville (Va.) of the Appalachian Class A League in 1993 before accepting a position as pitching coach at Creighton.
O'Connor is married to the former Cindy Petratis. The couple has three children - two daughters, Ellie and Maggie and one son, Dillon.
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