Press Release from LSUE Athletics
LSU Eunice Baseball head coach Jeff Willis has been honored as the 2024 recipient of the Skip Bertman National Coach of the Year Award, the College Baseball Foundation announced on Wednesday. The annual award is named in honor of legendary LSU head coach Skip Bertman and is presented to the top collegiate coach in the United States.
Willis and the other 2024 College Baseball Foundation award winners will be honored at the College Baseball Night of Champions on February 13, 2025, in Overland Park, Kansas, the new home of the College Baseball Hall of Fame as well as locally during next season.
“Jeff had another outstanding season,” said Mike Gustafson, chair of the Skip Bertman Award. “But in addition to the outstanding team he put on the field again, the character and behavior of his kids off the field was also stellar.”
Willis is the first two-time recipient of the Bertman Award, having been named the 2018 Bertman Award winner. Other award winners of the Skip Bertman Award over the years include LSU’s Paul Mainieri, Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan, and Michigan’s Erik Bakich. The award began in 2013 to honor Hall of Fame coach Skip Bertman, who won five College World Series titles during his 17-year tenure at LSU.
“It is truly humbling to even be associated with someone like Coach Bertman,” LSU Eunice head coach Jeff Willis said. “These types of awards are a testament to the excellence I’m fortunate enough to be associated with – from our outstanding coaches and student-athletes to our staff and faculty that help our young men accomplish their academic and athletic goals.”
Under Coach Willis’s guidance, 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.
“My father cheered for all the coaches who led a record setting post season this year at all levels of collegiate baseball in Louisiana,” said Lori J. Bertman, the newest College Baseball Foundation Board Trustee and owner of Bertman & Associates, a consultancy that guides sports and other philanthropy. “Coach Willis shines because of his dedication to the fundamentals that Skip Bertman holds dear: fans always come first, and victories are won as a team on and off the field. The Junior College system is an integral part of the College baseball continuum, enabling players to receive a quality education while sharpening their baseball skills to be ready for a four-year college and beyond. I am extraordinarily grateful to help carry on my father’s legacy through the Skip Bertman Coach of the Year Award.”
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.
The Bertman Award is just the latest accolade bestowed on Coach Willis, who has also been named the LSWA All-Louisiana Coach of the Year, ABCA/ATEC NJCAA Division II Gulf Region Coach of the Year, ABCA/ATEC NJCAA Division II National Coach of the Year, 2024 NJCAA Division II Region 23 Coach of the Year and 2024 NJCAA Division II World Series Coach of the Tournament.