San Jose, Calif. – After conducting a national search during the season, San José State University turned within and promoted Brad Sanfilippo, the program’s interim head coach for the 2018 season, to head coach. Marie Tuite, the Spartans’ director of athletics, made the announcement.
“We are celebrating a new era of Spartan baseball with the announcement of Brad Sanfilippo as our Head Coach,” Tuite said. “I’ve watched Coach Sanfilippo for some time now, and his ‘student-centric’ philosophy and vision match the same values I have for our program. This was clearly evident as he stepped into the interim role and was masterful at guiding our program to a successful season, while focusing on the academic mission for our student-athletes.
“I’m thrilled he will be directing our baseball program and provide some much needed consistency. We welcome Brad, Colleen and Frances to the Spartan family.”
Armed now with a five-year contract, Sanfilippo was named the program’s interim head coach on January 29, less than three weeks prior to the start of the 2018 season. He inherited a program that failed to win 20 games in each of the last five seasons, was picked to finish seventh in the seven-team Mountain West, and had not produced a winning record in conference play since 2009.
San José State found its stride just after the season’s midpoint. The Spartans won 13 of their last 17 conference games to finish in third place with a 16-14 MW record and qualified for the four-team conference tournament. San José State eliminated regular-season champion Nevada on the second day of the MW Tournament for its 27th win of the season – the most wins by the Spartans in a season since 2011 when San José State had 35 wins.
“I am excited and grateful for this opportunity to become the next baseball coach at San José State. I want to thank athletics director Marie Tuite and the selection committee for placing their trust in me and the program in my hands. Having grown up here, this is a dream job for me, and I am honored to lead a program with such a storied baseball tradition. I am committed to the success of our student-athletes on the field, in the classroom and in our community. We will work tirelessly compete at the highest level in the Mountain West,” said the new Spartans’ baseball head coach whose team finished with a 27-30 overall win-loss record in 2018.
“I am proud of the way our team showed their character and toughness on the field this year, never giving in, always supporting each other and believing in one another. It was a great sense of accomplishment to watch our players celebrate their hard work with wins on the field and fun to share our success with our fans and alumni. We still have a lot of work to do moving forward, but this was a great first step.”
Sanfilippo is in his second stint at San José State. He was an assistant coach at San José State in 2013 and 2014. His college coaching experience also includes the 2010 through 2012 and the 2015 through 2017 seasons as a University of California assistant baseball coach.
He has seven seasons of high school head coaching experience – six at nearby Los Gatos (Calif.) High and one at Willow Glen High in San José. His teams won four league titles and Division II Central Coast Section championships for Los Gatos High in 2006 and 2009. Los Gatos High was 139-51 in his six seasons with the Wildcats.
As a player, he was a three-year starter for the University of California at Davis. In his senior season, he was one of the Aggies’ team captains.
A reception will be held on Wednesday, June 13, at 3:30 p.m., at the Gold Room located in the Simpkins Stadium Center. Parking is available across the street at the Park & Ride Lot.
