| Adam Stevens is the 17th head
coach for the Spartans. Aurora athletics photo |
The Aurora University Athletic Department announced today the hiring of Adam Stevens as the next head coach of the Spartan baseball program.
Stevens becomes the program's 17th head coach, coming to AU
after serving as the head coach at Central College in Pella, Iowa
for the past 11 seasons where he had a 253-193 overall record. In
2012, he led Central to the program's first outright Iowa
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) title in 64 years. That
same year he was named the D3baseball.com Central Region Coach of
the Year. He also received IIAC Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2012,
coached the 2006 Academic All-American of the Year, and had 12
All-Region players and two IIAC Players of the Year throughout his
tenure. Stevens replaces Lane Stahl led the
Spatans to a 10-28 record, with six conference wins in 2014.
"We are excited that Adam has decided to take over the leadership of the AU baseball program," said Aurora University Athletic Director Jim Hamad. "We have found the ideal candidate to get the program back to an elite level and build upon our renowned baseball history. His successful tenure as a head coach in a competitive athletic conference made him our top choice the moment we started the search. We are confident that under his guidance AU baseball will soon return to national prominence."
"I am very excited to be the next head baseball coach at Aurora University. The baseball program has such a rich tradition of success and I am going to work as hard as I can to help add to that wonderful tradition," said Stevens. "We want to recruit quality student-athletes that are committed to being on a nationally competitive baseball team. I'm very excited to meet the current players and get to work."
Prior to becoming the head coach at Central College, Stevens was an assistant coach at Wabash College for one season in 2003 and served as an administrative assistant with the baseball program at Ball State University in 2002.
"My family and I had a great experience at Central College and it was a hard place to leave," Stevens added. "We have a lot of great relationships with people in Pella and we are looking forward to meeting people in the Aurora university community and alumni."
Stevens graduated from Morningside College in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. While there he was a four-year starter, played in 110 consecutive games and was a team captain his senior year. He then went on to earn a master's degree in athletic administration from Ball State University in 2003.
The AU baseball team finished the 2014 season with a 10-28 overall record, including a 6-14 mark within the NACC. Over the last 30 seasons, the Spartan baseball program has won 21 conference championships, appeared in 20 NCAA Division III regionals and six NCAA Division III Championships (World Series). The AU baseball program boasts an all-time record of 1,164-829-11 (.584) with a record of 871-376-6 (.698) in the past 30 years.
Aurora University is a member of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), which began its first season of competition in the fall of 2006. The NACC consists of 13 colleges and universities from the shared-border states of Illinois and Wisconsin. Member schools include: Alverno College, Aurora University, Benedictine University, Concordia University Chicago, Concordia University Wisconsin, Dominican University, Edgewood College, Lakeland College, Marian University, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Rockford University and Wisconsin Lutheran College. AU sponsors all of the 18 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference sponsored sports as well as hockey, men's and women's lacrosse. Men's teams include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field. Women's squads are fielded in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, and volleyball.