coaches/staff - University of North Dakota Athletics

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HEAD COACH JEFF DODSON
JEFF DODSON
Head Coach
LIVINGSTON, 1993
1st season
On June 20, 2008, Jeff
Dodson officially became
the first Division I baseball
coach in the history of North
Dakota baseball. Dodson
takes over a program that
spent the previous 50 seasons
playing at the Division II level in the North Central
Conference.
“I am thrilled to be the new head coach at the
University of North Dakota,” Dodson said. “It is not often
that you get to be on the ground floor of building a Division
I program, and I look forward to the challenge.
“I would like to thank Athletic Director Brian Faison for
giving me the opportunity to build on the UND baseball tradition
and establish another fine Division I athletic program
for UND. I would also like to thank Mark Hogan and
Southeast Missouri State for giving me my first D-I coaching
experience.”
Dodson enters his first season at UND after five years
of assistant coaching at Southeast Missouri State, an NCAA
Division I school in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
At Southeast Missouri State, Dodson served as the
pitching coach and recruiting coordinator under head coach
Mark Hogan, who is Southeast’s all-time winningest baseball
coach. Prior to his stint at Southeast Missouri, Dodson
spent seven seasons as the head coach at Martin Methodist
College, an NAIA school in Pulaski, Tenn. Dodson produced
a 190-144 record at Martin Methodist, including four winning
seasons in his last five.
Dodson on his coaching staff ...
“The first guy I brought with me was J.C. Field. He was a
catcher at the University of Missouri and a very good player.
I got to know him as a player and then he came to coach
with us at Southeast Missouri State last year as a volunteer.
He is a high-energy guy who brings a lot of enthusiasm. He
is really good with the kids and has a great ability to recruit.”
“Brian DeVillers was retained from last year’s staff. After
talking with Brian and going through the process of my
interview with him, he showed me signs of having really
good baseball ties in this area of North Dakota, Minnesota
and Iowa. He is branching out with the recruiting part of it
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Southeast Missouri State’s 2008 recruiting class was
ranked 91st in the nation by Collegiate Baseball, and
Dodson recruited and signed three All-Americans – Brad
Smith, Nick Harris and Jim Klocke – since joining the
Southeast coaching staff in 2004.
This past season, the Redhawks finished 26-26 overall
and 12-13 (sixth) in the Ohio Valley Conference and
advanced to the conference tournament championship
round before falling to Eastern Illinois.
While at Martin Methodist, Dodson coached four players
into the professional ranks. During his tenure, seven players
were named All-Americans, eight all-region, and 35 all-conference.
In 2000, his pitching staff led the NAIA with a
national-best 3.11 earned run average, and pitcher John
Ogiltree was named TranSouth pitcher of the year and a
first-team All-American. That same year, Dodson’s team
broke the school record for wins, finishing with a 42-16
mark.
While Dodson was head coach, his Martin Methodist
teams broke nearly every school record and in 2003 his
team qualified for the NAIA Region XI postseason tournament
with an overall record of 35-20.
Before Martin Methodist, Dodson was head coach at
Bevill State Community College for two seasons (1995-96).
Dodson also served as an associate scout with the
Philadelphia Phillies from 2001-2003. Three of his players
from Bevill went on to play professional baseball and 12
went on to a four-year program.
Thirty-eight of his former players have gone on to
become coaches.
Dodson earned his associate’s degree in physical education
from Bevill State in 1989, his bachelor’s degree in the
same field from Livingston University in 1993, and his master’s
degree from Emporia State in 2002.
to the West. I felt like he was a really good guy. He had a
great feel for the alumni, great feel for the tradition of UND
having been a player here.
“Eric Hoffman was basically a guy who fell in our lap. We
were fortunate that he did. He is a young guy that played at
Northern Iowa and is from nearby Erskine, Minn. He has a
great background as a pitcher and an outfielder, so that
makes him a viable person to work with the kids in our program.”