University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
It's Official: Cajuns Name Szefc Assistant Coach
9/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
It's
Official: Cajuns Name Szefc Assistant Coach
Thursday, Sept. 26, 2002
LAFAYETTE –
University of Louisiana at Lafayette Director of Athletics
Nelson Schexnayder announced the hiring of
John Szefc on Thursday as assistant baseball coach.
Szefc's hiring is pending approval from the University of
Louisiana Board of Trustees. He is replacing former
assistant coach Wade Simoneaux, who left UL Lafayette in
August to become the head baseball coach at Louisiana Tech.
The
Middletown, NY native brings a wealth of collegiate coaching
experience to Louisiana-Lafayette. For the past seven
years, Szefc has been the head baseball coach at Marist
College.
“His background certainly speaks for itself,” commented
Schexnayder. “Coach Robichaux is very impressed, as am I.
There is no doubt John will come in and do and excellent
job.”
Szefc, who took over the Marist program prior to the 1996
season, led the Red Foxes to four NCAA Baseball Tournaments.
His club made three straight NCAA Tournament appearances
from 2000-02, winning an NCAA game in each of those
tournaments, advancing into the winners bracket at the 2002
Regional in Lincoln, Neb.
During his tenure with the Red Foxes, Szefc posted a
212-137-1 record, including a school-record 41 wins this
past spring. He led Marist to three straight Metro Atlantic
Athletic Conference Tournament titles, including the regular
season title in 2002. Szefc took Marist to its first
baseball title in 1997, just his second year as the head
coach.
Szefc has seen nine of his players drafted, including five
in the last two years. Two players have gone as high as the
10th and 11th rounds of the MLB Draft.
He was named the ABCA Northeast Region Coach of the Year in
2001, after leading the Red Foxes to their second straight
NCAA appearance and a 33-21-1 record. Marist ranked 15th in
the nation with its .329 batting average, and Anthony
Bocchino was one of the top offensive threats in the nation,
hitting .430, 12th in the country.
In 2002, Szefc's team hit a collective .313, with Bocchino
leading the club again and ranking fifth in the nation, with
a .444 average.
Szefc showed early in his Marist coaching career that the
Red Foxes would be a team to contend with, as he led Marist
to the 1997 Northeast Conference title, going 32-19 overall
and capturing the NEC regular season and tournament titles.
For his efforts, Szefc was named NEC Coach of the Year.
The following season, 1998, the first as a member of the
MAAC, Szefc led the Red Foxes to the tournament final before
being defeated by LeMoyne. After missing the 1999
tournament, Marist returned with a vengeance in the 21st
century. The Red Foxes posted a 33-win season and swept
through the MAAC Tournament earning an automatic bid to its
second NCAA Tournament.
Prior to coaching at Marist, Szefc spent the 1995 season as
an assistant coach at Sacred Heart University. He began his
collegiate coaching career at Drexel, serving as an
assistant from 1990-1994.
Szefc also managed the New York Generals in the Atlantic
Collegiate Baseball League (ACBL) during the summers of 1995
and 1996, guiding the club to a 47-28 record in two seasons,
two consecutive Kaiser Division Championships and the ACBL
championship game in 1996. During those two seasons, Szefc's
Generals produced eleven professional players including Matt
Morris, the runner-up for the 1997 National League Rookie of
the Year award.
A 1989 graduate of Drexel University, Szefc played his first
two years of college baseball at the University of
Connecticut before transferring in 1987. During his senior
campaign with the Dragons he was an All-East Coast
Conference outfielder.
Szefc holds a masters degree in Sports Administration from
Temple University.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
