CINCINNATI – Veteran coach Scott Googins has been named the University of Cincinnati’s 28th baseball head coach, Director of Athletics Mike Bohn announced Tuesday.
Googins will be introduced to the media at a 1 p.m. ET press conference on Wednesday in the Richard E. Lindner Center in Varsity Village.
Googins makes the move across town after 12 seasons as the head coach at Xavier. The all-time winningest coach in XU history, he has 341 career victories with four NCAA Tournament appearances including back-to-back regional finals berths in 2016 and 2017 and six regular-season or conference tournament championships.
“Coach Googins is a proven winner and developer of talent and a perfect fit for the University of Cincinnati,” Bohn said. “He is a coach with great passion for student-athletes, is highly regarded in the state of Ohio and possesses strong connections to pro scouts and leaders across baseball on the national scene. He is a man of character, integrity and has a deep desire to seek a new challenge and win championships in a competitive baseball conference. We are excited to welcome Scott, his wife Jody and their children, Ellie, Tommy and Charlie to our Bearcats family.”
Googins led Xavier to a 34-27 finish in 2017. The Musketeers won their second-straight BIG EAST Tournament Championship and advanced to the NCAA Regional Finals for the second-straight year. Rylan Bannon was named the BIG EAST Player of the Year and the Musketeers featured six all-league selections.
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During his 12 seasons at the helm at XU, Googins earned coaching accolades as the 2009 ABCA Mideast Region Coach of the Year, the 2008 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year and the 2016 BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year. Additionally, 11 of his players have been chosen in the MLB First-Year Player Draft since 2005, including Seth Willoughby whose fourth-round selection by the Colorado Rockies in 2012 was the highest pick in program history.
The Xavier program soared to new heights under Googins’ tutelage, earning its first Atlantic 10 Championship and first NCAA victory in 2009. Its first BIG EAST Championship win and second NCAA Tournament victory came in 2014 before back-to-back BIG EAST Championship titles and NCAA Regional Championship appearances in 2016 and 2017.
“My family and I are thrilled to be a part of the University of Cincinnati,” Googins said. “It was not an easy decision to leave Xavier, a great institution where I have many connections. I am excited to be the head coach at UC, to get to know our team and grow with them, give our student-athletes a great experience and have fun playing baseball. There are talented players here who know how to play the game the right way and we are going to work hard. If being a student-athlete at UC is three or four years of our player’s lives, I want it to be the best three or four years possible.”
Before taking the head-coaching role at Xavier, Googins was an assistant with the program in 2005. He joined the Musketeers after four seasons at Miami (Ohio) from 2000-04. During his tenure working primarily with the outfielders, the RedHawks made four straight Mid-American Conference Tournament appearances. Two of his players left for the professional ranks with one garnering All-American honors before his departure.
He was an assistant at Indiana from 1992-99, working with the Hoosiers’ catchers, outfielders and hitters. He was a part of the 1996 Big Ten Championship team and traveled to the Wichita State Regional in the NCAA Tournament.
A native of Granville, Ohio, Googins was a three-year varsity letterwinner at Ohio Wesleyan in Delaware, Ohio. He was the Battling Bishops catcher during his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons and posted a .350 career batting average before suffering a career-ending arm injury prior to his senior season. He moved into a coaching role as a senior and stayed on staff after graduation, coaching first base and working with the team’s catchers.
Googins and his wife, Jody – a former volleyball standout at Xavier – live in West Chester, Ohio, with their daughter, Ellie, and two sons, Tommy and Charlie.
