Ole Miss adds Justin Dedman As Director of Operations

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

OXFORD, Miss. – Justin Dedman has joined the Ole Miss baseball staff, filling the position of Director of Baseball Operations head coach Mike Bianco announced on Friday.

Dedman fills the position previously held by Rob Francis, who has since taken a position as a volunteer assistant coach with the Rebel coaching staff upon the promotion of Matt Mossberg to the position of a full-time assistant.

"We’re excited with the hiring of Justin Dedman as a part of our staff," Bianco said. "He’s an individual has experience at the Division I level, but has also been a head coach at Denison University. He brings a lot of administrative experience and knowledge of running a baseball program with him having served as a head coach himself."

"I’m incredibly excited to join a program as prestigious and as exciting as the Ole Miss baseball program," Dedman said. "I’m most excited about the people I’ll be working with, particularly Coach Bianco. His energy and enthusiasm are infectious. The camaraderie of this staff is something I am looking forward to being a part of."

In his role as Director of Operations, Dedman is responsible for handling a variety of tasks for the day-to-day functioning of the Ole Miss baseball program, including travel arrangements, budget management, equipment inventory, on-campus recruiting, serving as a strength and nutrition liaison and assisting with management of the Bullpen Club.

Prior to joining the Rebel staff, Dedman spent five months at Austin Peay after joining the Governors as a volunteer assistant in August of 2009 in a role similar to his new position at Ole Miss. At Austin Peay, Dedman was responsible for directing the hitters and catchers while also running the strength and conditioning program. As a part of the strength and conditioning program, Dedman established a nutrition catalog, a manual and a dietary program for the team.

He also assisted in on-campus recruiting and assisting in travel arrangements, fundraising, equipment management, running tournaments and youth camps.

Before joining the staff at Austin Peay, Dedman served two years as the head coach at Denison University – one season as the interim head coach (2008) before being named the full-time head coach for the 2009 season. In his first season he led Denison to a 27-18 record, the third most wins ever in Denison history, and claimed the NCAC Western Division title.

Prior to assuming the duties as head coach, Dedman served as an assistant coach for two seasons (2006, 2007) at Denison. He worked with the hitters, outfielders and pitchers while serving as the recruiting coordinator and assisting with most of the day-to-day managerial duties of the program.

An alumnus of Denison University, Dedman was a second-team All-North Coast Athletic Conference selection as a senior after batting .417 with 25 runs scored and 14 RBIs. He posted a .363 career batting average in 91 total games and was a part of three NCAC division championship squads. In 2004, Dedman started in the outfield as a nationally-ranked Denison team set a school-record for wins and record (31-7). In addition to his regular duties in the outfield, Dedman also saw time in both starting and relief roles within the Denison pitching staff.

In addition to his work with Denison, Dedman also spent two summers working in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League. Dedman served as hitting coach for the Southern Ohio Copperheads in 2007, helping the team to a third place finish in the GLSCL. As an assistant general manager with the Granville Settlers in 2006, he wore a variety of hats ranging from media relations to ticket sales, field maintenance and concessions sales.

Dedman graduated from Denison in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in English-Writing and a minor in Spanish. He is engaged to Brittany Cerne of Canton, Ohio.