HARRISONBURG, Virginia – Head Baseball Coach Joe “Spanky” McFarland has announced that the 2015 season, his 18th as leader of the Dukes, will be his final one as he will retire from coaching in June.
“This spring will be my 38th season of coaching college baseball and it will be my last, as I plan to retire at the conclusion of what will be my 18th season at JMU,” McFarland said. “After coaching at eight colleges in five different states, Deb and I are ready to get off the roller coaster ride that college athletics and plan to devote time to mutual interests. The list is long of things put on hold due to the year round commitment of our jobs and we are ready and excited to start the next phase of our lives. We would love to travel, including more mission work, and explore different opportunities and adventures. We trust that God will put us where he needs us, just as he did when we came to JMU 17 years ago.
“We have both been all in, trying to make a difference in young people’s lives and will continue to do so, in some form or manner,” McFarland continued. “Whatever we end up doing, you can rest assured that JMU, the Shenandoah Valley and the wonderful people that we have come to know and love will always be in our hearts. The timing of an announcement like this is always difficult, but after much prayer, we decided that this moment would be the best for all involved. JMU athletics, my loyal assistant coaches, our players and our committed recruits will all have the gift of time to plan for the future.”
“”I want to acknowledge the dedication, hard work and commitment that Coach McFarland has given to our program over the past 18 years,” JMU Athletics Director Jeff Bourne commented. “He and his staff have worked diligently to develop our young men as leaders on and off the field. We have been fortunate to have not only Coach McFarland, but is entire family as a support system for our young men. His wife, Deb, has been incredibly loyal and supportive and Tyler, who played for the Dukes, is a proud graduate and is currently pursuing his professional playing career. We are going to miss Spanky and Deb and acknowledge the positive impact they had on our program and the community in which we live. I wish them much happiness in this new phase of their lives.”
A two-time Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Coach of the Year selection in 2002 and 2010, McFarland has led JMU to two CAA Championships in 2008 and 2011 and three NCAA Tournament appearances in 2002, 2008 and 2011. Starting the 2014 and final campaign as the Dukes’ leader, McFarland has a JMU coaching record of 503-450-4 and his 646 Division I wins, including his time at Northern Illinois, placing him among the top 50 active college coaches for career victories at four-year institutions. He was also the Louisville Slugger Conference Coach of the Year four times and East Region Co-Coach of the Year pick by the American Baseball Coaches Association in 2011.
In 2008, McFarland added the State Coach of the Year by the Virginia Sports Information Directors and the 2008 College Coach of the Year by the Middle Atlantic Baseball Scouts Association. In 2010, McFarland became the second coach to reach 400 wins at JMU when the Dukes won at East Carolina 11-5 on May 18. He reached 600 career coaching wins during the 2011 season and picked up his 500th JMU win during the 2014 campaign.
McFarland has coached nine All-Americans, 54 All-CAA picks, 14 CAA All-Rookie selections, five CAA Player of the Year honorees (including Eddie Kim and Kellen Kulbacki twice each), one CAA Pitcher of the Year and 20 ABCA All-East honorees. He also coached three players named to the CAA’s 25th anniversary team in 2010 in Kim, Kulbacki, and Greg Miller. Kulbacki was also recognized as a “Silver Star” as one of the top 25 athletes in any sport in the league’s 25-year history. In 2011, catcher Jake Lowery and shortstop David Herbek became the first JMU teammates to each earn First Team All-America laurels. Lowery, the CAA Player of the Year, captured the Johnny Bench Award as the nation’s best catcher and was tabbed National Hitter of the Year by CollegeBaseballInsider.com. During McFarland’s tenure, the Dukes have had 28 players drafted and 38 have signed professional contracts.
One of the most memorable seasons for McFarland and the Dukes was the 2011 campaign. Playing in Veterans Memorial Park for just the second season as the home field for JMU, McFarland guided the team to a 42-19 record while playing the most games in program history and accumulating the third-most wins in a season. JMU finished first in the CAA (21-9) for the seventh time in program history and the fourth time in McFarland’s 14 seasons at that point and the third occasion in the last six years. The Dukes then went 3-0 in the CAA tournament to capture the program’s second CAA title. The Dukes made their eighth NCAA Division I regional appearance and earned multiple wins in a regional for the first time since 1983 after posting wins over FIU and Maine. JMU finished as runner up of the Chapel Hill Regional, its best postseason showing since reaching the College World Series in 1983.
McFarland coached for seven seasons (1991-97) at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., which reinstated baseball in 1991 after discontinuing the program in 1982. He previously was an assistant coach at South Florida (1986-90), Georgia Tech (1983-85), Florida State (1982), Appalachian State (1981), and at his alma mater, Hillsdale College (1977).. His first head coaching job was at Kellogg (Mich.) Community College (1979-80) where he led the Bruins to a 33-13 record.
McFarland resurrected the NIU program from the ground up. He accepted the challenge with no team, field, equipment or scholarships. His first team consisted of all non-scholarship, walk-on players. It took only six years for the Huskies to reach the NCAA tournament, thanks in part to nationally-ranked recruiting classes in 1992, 1993 and 1995. McFarland led Northern Illinois to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference regular-season and tournament titles and into NCAA play in 1996 and to third-place league finishes in 1995 and 1997. The conference championship was the first by the school in 24 years, and the 1997 squad led the MCC in hitting with a .323 average. His 143 victories with the Huskies make him the winningest coach in NIU baseball history.
In his entire coaching career, McFarland has coached 68 pitchers who signed professional contracts, including 1997 World Series standout Kevin Brown, then of the Florida Marlins and later with the New York Yankees before retiring in 2006. Twelve hurlers have gone on to the Major Leagues. Four of his Northern Illinois players were drafted after 1992, and 15 Huskies were named all-conference over his last five seasons at the school. Other proteges include Dave Eiland, who was pitching coach of the New York Yankees under Joe Girardi and is now with the Kansas City Royals, and Mark Quimuyog, who serves as East coast scouting supervisor for the Twins and whose son joined the Diamond Dukes for the 2014 season.
Before his seven years in Illinois, McFarland helped guide the Appalachian State, Florida State and Georgia Tech programs to more than 400 victories, season records for wins, national rankings and NCAA tournament bids. In all, he was instrumental in five conference championships, six NCAA tournaments and two #1 national rankings.
McFarland has written pitching books “Developing Pitchers” and “Coaching Pitchers,” which included a foreword by Brown. The third edition of “Coaching Pitchers” was released in 2003. He was a guest speaker at the U.S. Olympic Committee symposium on “Injuries to the Throwing Arm” in 1983 and has been a featured speaker at five National Baseball Coaches Association National Clinics and four American Baseball Coaches Association conventions. He has also been an ambassador for the sport, having been associated for several years with the Edinburgh Diamond Devils, a Scottish professional team, and in January of 2005 assisted with a week-long clinic for more than 75 coaches and 700 players in Bratislava, Slovakia. In December of 2007, McFarland gave a coaching clinic to the Austrian Baseball Federation and worked with some of the Austrian National Team players.
In addition to coaching, McFarland is on the board of the local chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and he is involved both nationally and locally as part of the Turner Ashby High School Huddle. He is also a deacon at First Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg. McFarland has traveled to the Dominican Republic four times for the annual Baseball Outreach trip with SCORE International (Sharing Christ Our Redeemer Enterprises), including in 2012.
McFarland is a native of New Carlisle, Ohio. He is a 1976 graduate of Hillsdale (Mich.) College with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in physical education and art. He received a master’s in physical education at Appalachian State in 1981. He played baseball and football at Hillsdale. In late 2010, he was inducted into the Springfield-Clark County Baseball Hall of Fame near his hometown of New Carlisle, Ohio.
McFarland’s wife, Deb, is a native of North Palm Beach, Fla. and is a 1982 graduate of Florida State University. The couple helped start the FCA Huddle at Turner Ashby High School. Spanky and Deb’s oldest child, Tara, was married in the Fall of 2010 while their son, Ty, completed his senior season for the Diamond Dukes in 2014. Their son-in-law, Mark Brennan, is a JMU graduate and a police officer in Henrico County (Va.).
