FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State head baseball coach Pat Casey and his wife, Susan, have been selected to receive the 2009 Nell and John Wooden Coaching Achievement Award from the World Sport Humanitarian Hall Of Fame.
The annual award honors a coach and spouse who have made exceptional contributions to their players’ lives and in the community. The award announcement came on Monday; it will be presented to Susan and Pat in a ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 24 at the Qwest Center in Boise, Idaho. The two will be given the award in a ceremony that will also include the induction of the NBA’s Adonal Foyle, MLS great Diego Gutierrez and world-class hurdler Tracy Mattes into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame.
"Susan and I would really like to thank the Humanitarian Hall of Fame for this award,"Pat Casey said. "It’s a great honor. People really don’t realize what the wives of coaches do to help us succeed, `behind the scenes,’ and what it means to us, so it’s great that Susan is being recognized. Certainly, we’d also like to thank the players who have been at Oregon State in my 15 years here as they’ve played a big part in making Oregon State a success and then accomplishing many outstanding things after their collegiate playing days."
Casey is just the second active coach to receive the award since its inception in 2003, and the second from the Pacific Northwest in as many years. Last year’s winner was Mark Few and his wife, Marcy. Few is the men’s basketball coach at Gonzaga in Spokane.
Wooden, the legendary men’s basketball coach at UCLA, was the initial recipient of the award and for whom the honor is named after. Other award winners include Pete and Florence Newell in 2004, Frosty and Donna Westering in 2005, Vince and Barbara Dooley in 2006 and Lyle and Eleanor Smith.
Casey will be in his 16th season with Oregon State in 2010 and has led the Beavers to two national titles and two Pacific-10 Conference Championships. In the last 10 years alone, 54 players under Casey’s tutelage have been selected in the MLB Draft. In addition, the head coach has had seven players selected as All-Americans while leading the club to four postseason appearances and nine winning seasons in the last decade.
This past season, the Beavers finished the year with a 37-19 record, advancing to the Fort Worth Regional Championship game before bowing out to host TCU. Oregon State finished tied for third in the Pacific-10 Conference with a 15-12 record, taking a series from then-top five club Arizona State.
During the year, Casey won his 500th career game – coming in a 2-0 win over Oregon – making him just the third coach in OSU history and the 19th in Pac-10 history to reach the 500-win plateau. During his 15 years, he has averaged 33 wins per season and has a winning record in 13 of 15 seasons.
Casey and the Beavers are currently participating in fall workouts. Stay tuned to osubeavers.com for more information regarding the Oregon State baseball team.
