The winningest head baseball coach in San Jose State University history, Sam Piraro is in his 22nd season at the helm in 2009. Piraro is the program’s only leader to guide the Spartans to multiple NCAA Championship appearances and Western Athletic Conference pennants. As the only San Jose State baseball coach with more than 500 victories, his teams have an overall record of 685-520-6 in 21 seasons. Over 100 of those wins have come against ranked teams.

In 34 years, the three-time WAC Coach of the Year has compiled over 900 wins and been associated with 29 winning, two .500 and just three losing seasons. He has produced six All-Americans, five Freshman All-Americans, 69 all-conference selections, including 35 All-WAC picks, and 32 academic honorees at the conference level, during his tenure. Former standout Junior Ruiz is the only player in WAC history to earn both the league’s Freshman of the Year (1999) and Player of the Year (2000) awards. Gerad Cawhorn was the Big West Conference Player of the Year in 1993.

Spartan Baseball Back on the Rise

The 2008 campaign saw Piraro’s Spartans post a winning overall record and a 30-plus victory season for the third year in a row, at 31-25, and qualify for a third successive WAC Tournament. San Jose State won its last five regular-season games to complete the WAC slate at 17-14, it’s first above-.500 league mark since going 21-9 in 2002. Picked to finish fifth in the preseason, the Spartans were just half a game out of the runner-up spot, in fourth.

Piraro and his brand-new coaching staff accomplished this with a squad that had just four seniors and 11 players returning from a year ago. He was rewarded by being selected the WAC Co-Coach of the Year, an honor he received for the third time in his 11 seasons in the conference. In 47 out of 56 games played, Piraro started no fewer than five freshmen and sophomores. In back-to-back non-conference victories at Washington State of the Pacific-10 Conference on April 27 and at home against San Francisco State on April 30, he started a season-high five true freshmen. The Spartans, second in the WAC in both pitching and fielding, posted a remarkable 21-6 record at home, including a pair of four-game WAC series sweeps over Louisiana Tech and Nevada.

In 2007, Piraro led San Jose State to a 34-26 overall mark, as the Spartans finished with the best record among the nine NCAA Division I baseball programs in Northern California. At the WAC Tournament, Piraro’s squad took its first two games before dropping back-to-back contests to eventual repeat champion Fresno State and host Nevada. Along the way, the Spartans knocked off top local opponents California and Stanford in the same season, posted a series triumph at WAC foe Hawai’i for the first time since 2002, and took the Rivalry Series set with Santa Clara for the first time since 2003.

A head coach who prides his program on being sound defensively, Piraro saw his squad top the conference in fielding (.970) for a third straight year while also pacing the WAC in hitting with a .312 average behind a single-season school-record 653 hits. Kyle Bellows became the first Spartan to earn All-America honors of any kind since 2003 by being named a Freshman All-American by two media outlets while garnering second-team All-WAC distinction alongside a pair of teammates, including Donato Giovanatto, who was later selected in the First-Year Player Draft.

Piraro notched win No. 600 on March 12, 2006, in a 9-3 defeat of Miami (Ohio) at San Jose Municipal Stadium. The Spartans concluded the 2006 campaign with an overall record of 33-26, surpassing the .500 mark for the first time since 2002. An even conference record of 12-12 was good for third in the final standings and a berth in the reinstituted WAC Tournament.

San Jose State’s team fielding percentage of .979 in 2006 bettered the school record it had just broken the year before with a mark of .978. The Spartans led the conference and ranked second nationally behind Oklahoma (.983).

The Spartans had pitcher Branden Dewing and outfielder Ryan Angel recognized as All-WAC performers. Two of Piraro’s pupils were chosen in the Major League Baseball Draft.

In 2005, Piraro’s squad posted a 28-28-1 overall record. The Spartans became one of only two teams in WAC history to put together a three-game sweep over national power Rice, the conference’s perennial champion from 1997 through 2005.

The then-school-record .978 fielding percentage in 2005 led the WAC while putting the Spartans in a three-way tie for first nationally with Texas and Washington. The Spartans did not commit an outfield error in 30 conference contests. First-team All-WAC shortstop Anthony Contreras produced a school-record 32-game hitting streak to close the season.

A Winning Tradition

After missing the 2003 season for medical reasons, Piraro returned to serve the University as its head baseball coach in 2004. He has averaged nearly 33 coaching wins per season at San Jose State, and has directed teams to .500-or-better records 18 times. He is also the only Spartan baseball coach to lead teams to seven consecutive .500-or-better seasons. His Spartans have four 40-win seasons, including a school-record 45 victories in 2002, when the team was ranked as high as 18th nationally, set eight school records and qualified for the NCAA Championship for the second time in three years.

On February 23, 2002, Piraro became the first Spartan head coach to reach the 500-win plateau with a road win at Cal Poly. On March 13, 2001, he took over the number-one spot for San Jose State baseball coaching victories with his 468th triumph, passing his mentor, Gene Menges, following a win at the University of San Francisco.

Fifteen of his San Jose State teams have reached the 30-win mark, including six in a row from 1997 through 2002. The 1989 and 1990 Spartans are the only two San Jose State teams to post back-to-back 40-win seasons.

In 2000, Piraro guided his team to one of the most celebrated seasons in Spartan athletic history. San Jose State won a share of the WAC crown and earned the program’s first NCAA Championship berth since 1971. The Spartans proceeded to win the Waco (Texas) Regional by defeating nationally-ranked Florida, and the Houston Super Regional over fifth-ranked University of Houston, to advance to the College World Series for the first time. Piraro was named the 2000 WAC Coach of the Year, the Rawlings Coach of the Year and was selected as the ABCA West Region Coach of the Year.

Named the San Jose State head coach in the summer of 1986, Piraro reached the 200-win mark in 1992, accomplishing the feat in fewer games than any previous SJSU baseball coach. His 300th Spartan coaching victory came in 1996 against Southern Utah, and his 400th win on April 10, 1999, against UNLV.

In 1997, the Spartans were 38-21 and won the WAC West Division championship. For his efforts, Piraro was named the WAC Coach of the Year and Louisville Slugger WAC Coach of the Year.

His teams have appeared in the national rankings a total of 47 times, including seven in the 2002 campaign and 10 weeks in 2000. The Spartans were ranked nationally for 11 weeks, and as high as 11th by Collegiate Baseball during the 1989 season. In 1990, the Spartans received their first preseason ranking and were ranked for 14 weeks, peaking at No. 4 by The Sporting News. San Jose State appeared twice in the Collegiate Baseball national rankings in 1992, at 29th and 27th. The Spartans were ranked as high as 17th in 1997.

Guiding Young Men’s Careers

Piraro has profoundly influenced the careers of his student-athletes. Nearly 80 of his San Jose State players have gone on to sign a professional baseball contract. Kevin Frandsen, a Spartan infielder from 2001-04, made his Major League Baseball debut with the San Francisco Giants on April 28, 2006, going 3-for-4 with three runs scored in his first game and hitting his first major-league home run on August 17, 2006, in San Diego. Frandsen, a local product who completed his first full season in the majors in 2007, was a 12th-round pick by the Giants during the 2004 Amateur Draft.

Anthony Telford pitched in the major leagues for nine seasons. Third baseman Jeff Ball, who played with the San Francisco Giants in 1998, managed the Atlantic City Surf professional baseball club from 2004-06. Second baseman Gabe Lopez was a Class AA prospect of the New York Yankees. Pitcher Matt Durkin was a second-round choice of the New York Mets in the 2004 draft. In all, Piraro has sent 27 players onto the next level via draft selection since 1997.

Over 50 of Piraro’s former players and assistants have moved into the high school and collegiate baseball coaching ranks. Eighth-year Santa Clara University head coach Mark O’Brien played on the 1991 and 1992 Spartans. Scott Hertler, Piraro’s assistant at Mission College and later for 12 years at San Jose State, has been the head coach at De Anza College since 1999. Also included are Todd Eagen (1987-88), head coach at Mission College; Shane Carley (1993-94), a former assistant at Mission College; Dave Sick (1991-94), a former assistant at De Anza College; and Greg Mugg (1990), another former assistant at De Anza.

The Spartan coach also places a premium on academic performance. Pitcher Donnie Rea and catcher Kevin Tannahill were Academic All-Americans in 1989. Dave Sick was a three-time Academic All-District VIII selection, with Karson Klauer a 2008 choice. The program has set new highs in Academic All-WAC honorees the last three years, with four in 2006 and eight each in 2007 and 2008. Fifteen Spartans earned San Jose State University Scholar-Athlete distinction for the 2005-06 academic year and 14 more for 2006-07. Spartan baseball players have posted the highest grade-point average among male SJSU student-athletes in two of the past three school years, with Wes Porter in 2004-05 and Klauer in 2006-07. Baseball players also took the second and third spots for 2006-07, in Josh Amberson and Greg Fyfe.

Corey Cabral, a pitcher who graduated in May of 2007, became the first Spartan male to be presented the WAC Stan Bates Award in August of 2007, as the top male scholar-athlete in the conference based on academic record, athletic performance, character, sportsmanship, leadership and community service. Cabral was a three-time Academic All-WAC honoree and also earned an Arm & Pat Hanzad Award for achieving University Scholar-Athlete distinction throughout his five years at San Jose State.

Piraro served as an assistant athletics director in addition to his duties as head coach from 1992-99. His fundraising efforts through the years have augmented the baseball operations budget and facilities. The Blethen Field project, through the generosity of Fred and Sandra Blethen-Chasalow, brought in $350,000. The gift enabled the program to refurbish Blethen Field into a first-class practice facility and alternate game site. Since Piraro’s hiring in 1986, he has raised over $1,000,000 for his program and the athletics department.

Background Rooted in San Jose

Piraro, an infielder on the 1971 and 1972 Spartan teams, earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education at San Jose State University in 1975. In 1982, he received his master’s degree from SJSU.

The San Jose native is in his 35th season as a college baseball coach and has amassed 949 coaching victories during his three different head-coaching appointments. He began his coaching career in 1974 as a graduate assistant and junior varsity coach at San Jose State. His first year as the junior varsity coach resulted in a league championship and a 22-5 record. Piraro produced a 74-43 coaching mark with the junior varsity squad in three seasons. He was the Spartans’ top varsity assistant from 1977 through 1979.

In 1980, Piraro became the first baseball coach at Mission College in Santa Clara, Calif. In seven seasons, he compiled a 190-70 record, won five Coast Conference championships and two state titles (1981 and 1983). Following each of the state crowns, Piraro was named California Community College Coach of the Year. He also was the school’s athletics director and chair of the physical education department from 1983 to 1986. In 1996, Piraro became the second-youngest coach to be inducted into the California Community College Baseball Hall of Fame, for his contributions to community college baseball.

The Santa Clara County chapter of the Italian-American Heritage Association recognized Piraro in 2000 as its Sportsperson of the Year. He has served as an NCAA regional advisor and a voting member of the Collegiate Baseball rankings panel, and was selected to represent the West Region on the NCAA Championship Selection Committee prior to the 2006 season. He has co-authored a book with fellow coaches, Gold Glove Defense, through the American Baseball Coaches Association.

He and his wife, JoAnn, live in San Jose with their two children, Jason (26) and Jenna (21). Jason is in his fourth season as the Spartans’ director of baseball operations, as he nears completion of his undergraduate degree requirements at San Jose State.