Gorloks Kurich Named Region Coach of the Year

Webster University Head Coach Bill Kurich was named the 2019 Diamond/American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) NCAA Division III Central Region Coach of the Year on Tuesday afternoon after leading the Gorloks to their fourth appearance in the Division III World Series.

For Kurich, this year's Central Region Coach of the Year honor from the ABCA is his fifth since becoming Webster's coach in 2007. He was also honored by the ABCA in 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2015.  

Kurich and the rest of this year's honorees in all the collegiate and high school divisions will be honored with their awards on Friday, Jan. 3 in the main clinic hall prior to the start of clinics at the 76th annual ABCA Convention, which will be held Jan. 2-5, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn.

In addition to leading Webster to the Division III World Series for the fourth time in the last eight years in 2019, Kurich, who has a .719 winning percentage (433-169) in 13 seasons at Webster, also led the team to a regional title at the Whitewater, Wis., Regional, a Midwest Super Regional title, a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament title for the second straight season and the program's 13th consecutive SLIAC regular season title as the Gorloks shared the 2019 title with Spalding.

Since becoming Webster's coach in 2007, Kurich, who won his 400th game earlier this season after sweeping a doubleheader against Buena Vista, has led the Gorloks to 13 consecutive winning seasons, including winning at least 30 games 10 times and he also led Webster to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, four regional championships, one super region title and four trips to the Division III World Series. In addition, he has led the Gorloks to 13 regular season SLIAC titles, eight SLIAC Tournament championships and has earned seven SLIAC Coach of the Year honors with the most recent honor coming in 2018 as he shared the award with Spalding's Matt Downs.

Kurich's Gorlok teams have never won fewer than 28 games in a season and have featured a total of 72 First-Team All-SLIAC selections, 14 Division III All-Americans, two Rawlings Gold Glove winners and a Division III National Pitcher of the Year.

The Gorloks finished the 2019 campaign with a 37-13 overall record and went 18-4 in the SLIAC to share the regular season title with Spalding. Webster ended the season ranked sixth and seventh in the final ABCA/Collegiate Baseball and NCBWA/D3Baseball.com polls of the 2019 season. The 37 wins this season were tied for the second-most in a single season in school history and over the past two seasons, Webster has compiled a 75-23 overall record and is 38-6 in SLIAC play.

Here is a complete list of the 2019 NCAA Division III Diamond/ABCA Region Coaches of the Year
 

STORY COURTESY OF WEBSTER UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION