Press Release via LSUE Athletics
EUNICE, La. – LSU Eunice Baseball Head Coach Jeff Willis has earned multiple Coach of the Year honors by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), the organization announced this week. In addition to Gulf District ABCA/ATEC Sports Regional Coach of the Year, the longtime Bengal skipper was awarded the ABCA/ATEC Sports National Coach of the Year for NJCAA Division II on Wednesday.
Willis, one of 12 recipients of the Regional NJCAA Division II award winners, took home his 12th Regional award and his 8th National Coach of the Year designation. The eight National Coach of the Years are the most for any coach in college baseball since the award was given beginning in 2003.
“These are always viewed by myself as team awards and I believe we have the best coaching staff, best student-athletes and the best university staff and faculty in America,” LSU Eunice Baseball Head Coach Jeff Willis. “The work that our entire institution puts in day in and day out always inspires me and these accolades are a reflection of their determination.”
LSU Eunice captured its eighth NJCAA Division II National Championship under Willis this season, the most in NJCAA Division II and the second most in the entire NJCAA in baseball. The Bengals finished the 2024 season with a 56-8 record, the school’s 12th time winning 50-plus games in a single season and the fourth time in the last six campaigns.
The Bengals broke six single-season team statistical records during 2024 including walks (461), hit by pitch (145), earned run average (2.45), strikeouts (635), opponent batting average (.199) and fielding percentage (.972). LSUE saw two players named NJCAA All-American and three ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners while Blake Lobell was named the NJCAA Division II National Pitcher of the Year and Dawson Willis was tabbed the NJCAA Division II National Defensive Player of the Year.
The National Champs started the season on a strong note, piecing together a 22-game win streak, the fifth longest in the program’s storied history. The Bengals won their 11th Region 23 Tournament in a 21-year span, sweeping through the Region 23 field with four wins. It was the seventh time LSUE went unbeaten in Region 23 Tournament play.
It was a memorable year for Willis, who was named to the NJCAA Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame last summer and the ABCA Hall of Fame in January. He is the only Louisiana coach and just the 24th junior college coach all-time to be named to both Halls of Fame. Willis also eclipsed the 1,000-win mark in his coaching career this season, all coming at LSU Eunice, on February 4 during a doubleheader against National Park College.
He is one of the youngest and quickest coaches in college baseball history to earn the milestone win, doing so in the very early moments of his 22nd season on the Cajun Prairie.
Overall, Jeff Willis holds a 1,051-226 career coaching record. His .823 winning percentage is the best in college baseball history among active NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA coaches with 10-plus years of experience, and only trailing Southern University’s Robert Henry Lee (1949-60) and Lloyd Simmons of Seminole State College all-time.
Willis’s other milestone award came in 2018 when he was named the Skip Bertman National Coach of the Year by the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. The honor is given to the nation’s top coach regardless of association or classification.