Van Horn Named ABCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year

Lincoln -- For the second consecutive season, the American Baseball Coaches Association/Diamond Sports honored University of Nebraska Baseball Coach Dave Van Horn with its Midwest Region Coach-of-the-Year award after leading the Huskers to their first regular-season conference title in 51 years and their first College World Series berth in 2001.

Van Horn will be honored at the annual ABCA National Convention in Orlando, Jan. 3-6, 2002. The national coach of the year award went to Miami's Jim Morris, the Atlantic Region Coach of the Year, who led the Hurricanes to a national title. Other regional coach-of-the-year honors went to John Szefc, Marist (Northeast); Mark Marquess, Stanford (West); Danny Price, Florida International and Clay Gould, UT-Arlington (South Central); Keith LeClair, East Carolina (East); Paul Mainieri, Notre Dame (Mideast) and Rick Jones, Tulane (South).

The Husker skipper was chosen by Baseball America as the magazine's coach of the year and was selected as the Big 12 Coach of the Year after piloting the Huskers to their finest season in school history in 2001. NU finished the year with a 50-16 record and reached the College World Series for the first time in school history. NU became the first Big 12 team to sweep the regular-season and tournament titles in the same year, while also earning the first No. 1 ranking in school history. Four of his players (Shane Komine, John Cole, Dan Johnson and Matt Hopper) earned first-team All-America recognition by at least one publication this season, making the most All-America selections in school history. Cole (first-team) and Jeff Leise (second-team) also both earned Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-America recognition.

As a team, the Huskers ranked in the top-10 nationally in both team batting average (.334) and runs per game (9.20), while also finishing second nationally in total hits (787) and runs scored (607). NU led the Big 12 in 11 offensive categories, including team batting average, runs scored, home runs, walks, stolen bases and sacrifice flies. In addition, the Husker pitchers led the Big 12 with a school-record 503 strikeouts and 15 saves, including a school-record 11 by first-team All-Big 12 closer Thom Ott, one of five Huskers to earn first-team all-conference recognition.

Van Horn has totaled a record of 167-71 in four seasons at Nebraska, leading the Huskers to three straight Big 12 Tournament titles and three consecutive NCAA appearances - another first in the program's history. Over the last three years, NU has averaged nearly 48 wins per season.

Van Horn Year-by-Year Record at Nebraska
Year - Record Accomplishments
1998 - 24-20
1999 - 42-18-Big 12 Tournament Champions; NCAA Regional
2000 - 51-17-Big 12 Tournament Champions; NCAA Regional Champions
2001 - 50-16 -Big 12 Regular Season and Tournament Champions; NCAA Regional and Super Regional Champions; College World Series appearance

Nebraska Total - 167-71 (four seasons)
Career NCAA Record - 324-147 (eight seasons)
Overall Record - 538-219 (13 seasons