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DENVER, Colo. - Metro State athletic director Joan McDermott announced the hiring of Tom Carcione (pronounced car-see-own) as the interim head baseball coach for the Roadrunners on Wednesday. Carcione becomes the fifth head coach in the college’s history and comes to Metro State with coaching experience at both the professional and collegiate level.
“I’m totally excited to be the head coach at Metro State,” Carcione said. “What an opportunity. I’ve been coaching baseball from high school to the professional level and have realized I really want to be in college.
“I’m so happy to be a head coach and lead a program that’s had success. You can do some real good things at Metro State. It seems like every team is winning championships and advancing to regional tournaments here. I want to get the baseball program to that level. We’re fortunate to have a baseball program that’s already been winning.”
Carcione will replace Jerry Schemmel who is resigning for personal reasons and to pursue other career opportunities. Schemmel has had a relationship with Roadrunner athletics for a number of years, including the past three with the baseball program. He led the Roadrunners to a 28-24 record in 2009 in his one season as head coach after spending two years as an assistant. Metro State has now had a winning season in 10 of its past 12 seasons and has made the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament each of the past four seasons.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my short time as head coach at Metro State,” Schemmel stated. “It was a tremendous experience for me. Unfortunately, for personal reasons, I need to step away. I want to thank the school for giving me this great opportunity.”
“We really appreciate the work Jerry has done with our baseball program over the past few years,” McDermott said. “Our whole athletics staff would like to thank him for his contributions both on and off the field. We’re really sorry to see him go. He really laid a solid foundation and got things going in the right direction. That should make an easier transition for Tom.
“Tom brings an extraordinary amount of experience from the college and professional levels. We’re really excited to have someone with his knowledge and experience to help move our baseball program forward in the right direction. He brings so much knowledge and so many contacts from all of his experiences and we think that will be an asset for Roadrunner baseball and help us compete at a national level.”
Carcione comes to Metro State from the Ottawa Rapidz of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball independent league. He took over as interim manager for Rapidz in mid season 2008 and was named full-time manager this spring, but the team disbanded in April.
Prior to his time in Ottawa, Carcione worked as the hitting instructor at NCAA Division I Northern Illinois University for two years. While at NIU, the Huskies had their two highest conference win totals in school history, going 16-11 in 2007 and 16-10 in 2008. Additionally, NIU tied the school record for the most wins in a season with a 34-24 record in 2007. His team batted .292 with 42 home runs in 2007 and .286 with 48 home runs in 2008. Four players signed professional contracts following their collegiate careers.
He also spent two years as the pitching coach for the Sioux City Explorers of the American Association independent baseball league. With the Explorers, he helped the team to a 10-game improvement and second-place finish in the North Division during the second half of the 2007 season. Under his coaching, his pitchers consistently ranked among the league’s best. In each of his two years, he had a pitcher lead the league in complete games and had a pitcher rank among the top two in innings pitched. Closer Matt Wilkinson led the American Association in saves in 2007. Carcione also served one year as the bench and bullpen coach of the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, helping the team to a Northern League division championship in 1999.
Other coaching experience includes four years as an assistant coach at the University of South Dakota and a year as the head coach in 2005 at Si Tanka University, an NAIA school in Huron, S.D. While at Si Tanka, he coached the team to a school record 22 wins and its best finish ever in the Dakota Athletic Conference, along with its first-ever regional tournament appearance. The school closed following the 2005 season.
Carcione played college baseball at Texas A&M University as the starting catcher for the Aggies, leading the squad to a 52-15 record in 1988 and a runner-up finish to Cal State Fullerton at the NCAA South Region Tournament that year. Following his time at Texas A&M, Carcione was drafted in the 10th round by the Oakland Athletics and spent five years in their organization, reaching as high as Double A. He then played five more seasons of minor league baseball with Sioux City of the Northern League and Grand Forks of the Prairie League.
He received his bachelor’s degree in recreation from the University of South Dakota in 2001. Carcione expects to be on campus on July 14.