Blue Valley Southwest baseball coach Tyler Kincaid earned a major national award for helping the Timberwolves take home the state baseball title last school year.
Driving the news: Kincaid was one of 10 coaches across the nation to be named a National Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association and ATEC Sports for 2022.
- He was also recognized by the district earlier this month at its regular Monday night Blue Valley School Board meeting for earning the title.
- All 2022 National Coaches of the Year are set to be honored at the 2023 ABCA Convention in Nashville on Friday, Jan. 6, as well.
State champions: In May, Kincaid helped lead the Blue Valley Southwest Timberwolves in taking home the 5A state title for the second year in a row.
- Back then, BV Southwest defeated Bishop Carroll 5-2, giving the high school its third baseball state title since 2015.
- Leading up to state, the Timberwolves finished their championship season 19-6 and was the fourth seed in the 5A state tourney.
Key quote: “To me, this award means we have really good players,” Kincaid said. “I’ve learned rather quickly that you’re only as good of a coach as the players that can perform on the field. In me receiving this honor, it’s a testament to what our players were able to produce and what all our coaching staff was able to put together.”
The process: In order to be in the running for this prestigious title, coaches must be nominated by a fellow coach for the award. For Kincaid, this person was Heath Gerstner, head baseball coach at McPherson High School.
- “I honestly thought [Gerstner] should be nominated with the season they had, but he just said because of what we’ve done over the course of a couple of seasons that he thought I was a viable candidate,” Kincaid said.
- Following nominations, the winning coaches are then selected by members of the ABCA All-America & Coach of the Year committees.
Kincaid’s history as a baseball coach
During his past 25 years as a baseball coach, Kincaid said he has coached at every level in the sport, including division one colleges.
- In his most recent years, Kincaid was the pitching coach at the University of San Diego for six seasons before taking an offer at Kansas State University in 2015.
- He then worked as a pitching coach at K-State for some time until he took his current position with the Blue Valley School District five years ago.
