UAPB Graduate Carlos James is in his 12th season as head baseball coach of the Golden Lions.
The Pine Bluff, Arkansas native has led the Golden Lions to three SWAC Western Division championships (2014, 2015, 2016), and five 20-win seasons (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018) while producing two conference players of the year.
James, who is a strong believer in hard work in the classroom as well as on the field of play, has had more than 100 student-athletes to earn SWAC All-Academic honors and more than 20 players to be inducted into the prestigious student-athlete honor society of Beta Chapter of Chi Alpha Sigma.
Last season, UAPB returned to the 20-win plateau for the fifth time in the last six seasons. The Golden Lions posted a pair of wins in the Andre Dawson Classic/MLB Urban Invitational over defending SWAC West Champion Grambling (5-4), and defending SWAC runner-up Alabama State (8-5). The Arkansas-Pine Bluff also posted wins over Valparaiso (6-5), and Stephen F. Austin (11-6), as well as Arkansas Little Rock (7-4) for the second straight year.
Outfielder Sergio Esparza earned second-team All-SWAC honors after hitting .303 with four home runs and 33 RBI. Nick Kreutzer ranked in the Top 10 in the SWAC in slugging percentage (.543/7th) and on-base percentage (.451/10th), doubles (16/5th), and walks (32/7th).
James was named head coach at UAPB in the fall of 2010, and after two seasons of rebuilding the program, the 2013 Golden Lions recorded their first 20- win season since 2002 in posting 21 victories and finished second in the SWAC West with a 13-11 record and earning a berth in the SWAC Tournament. The season was highlighted by a 6-4 win over TCU as Isias Alcantar earned SWAC Player of the Year Honors.
In 2014, the Golden Lions won the school’s first-ever division title and posted their second consecutive 20-win season with 22 wins, including a 16-7 mark in SWAC play. Alcantar was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 36th round and was the second player in the James era to be drafted, following Chretien Matz in 2012 (Detroit Tigers, 44th round).
UAPB again repeated its success in 2015, winning its second consecutive SWAC Western Division title with a school-record tying 25 wins with only 16 losses, including a 17-6 mark in league play. The Golden Lions also ranked 25th in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings (8.4 avg; 330 strikeouts in 353 innings pitched). Arkansas-Pine Bluff also posted big wins over No. 7 ranked Mississippi State (3-2), No. 23 Missouri (8-3), Kansas (6-5), and Louisiana Tech (5-4).
James had a pair of players drafted from that team, as Andre Davis (Kansas City Royals, 8th round) and Kevin Walsh (Philadelphia Phillies, 21st round) were selected in the MLB Draft. The Golden Lions also had 24 players earn SWAC All-Academic Honors, the most under James.
In 2016, UAPB made in three straight SWAC Western Division titles, winning 22 games and posting a 16-6 mark in conference play, highlighted by Skyler Henson earing SWAC Relief Pitcher of the Year honors.
In 2017, the Golden Lions produced big wins at Alabama (8-3) and Arkansas Little Rock (2-1), while splitting the season series with eventual SWAC Western Division champion Grambling.
James began his coaching career as an assistant baseball coach at UAPB from 1998 to 2001.
After being out of baseball for several years, James joined the professional ranks when he was named associate scout with the Seattle Mariners in 2005.
After three seasons with the Mariners, James returned to the coaching ranks as he was named interim head baseball coach at the University of Arkansas at Monticello in the middle of the 2008 season, and later was named full time head coach. James was the first African-American head coach of any sport at UAM and the Gulf South Conference.
The program saw marked improvement in James’ two full seasons as head coach, improving to nine wins in 2009 to 20 wins in 2010, UAM’s first 20-win season since 2006. The Boll Weevils posted wins over a pair of Top 10 opponents in 2009 (No. 3 North Alabama, No. 9 West Alabama).
The 2010 season was the breakout season for the Boll Weevils with UAM receiving its first-ever national ranking at No. 9 in the National College Baseball Writers Association South Region during the season, in which James led the team to its first conference series sweep since 2005 and produced pair of all-conference selections.
James played collegiately at Seminole State as an outfielder and was a three-time draftee of the Oakland A’s (1990, 1991, 1992). He played one season of pro ball for the Pine Bluff Locomotives of the Big South League in 1997, batting .297 with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.
James is in his third year as chairman of the SWAC Baseball Coaches Committee as well as the NCAA Regional Advisory Committee. He also is in his first year on the American Baseball Coaches Association Diversity Committee, which held its first meeting at the 2019 ABCA Convention in Dallas.
James, who received his Bachelors of Science degree in general studies from UAPB in 2002, is married to the former Ms. Deborah Dunn of Pine Bluff, Ark. They are the proud parents of five children and three grandchildren.
