Following an extensive national search, USCB Athletics announced on Friday, Aug. 21, 2020 the hiring of Ted Falkner as the next head coach for the Sand Shark baseball program. Falkner is the fourth head coach in the program's history.
"Especially in these tenuous times, this is extraordinarily good news, said Director of Athletics Quin Monahan. "We are excited to welcome Coach Falkner to USCB and look forward to him and his family becoming part of the Sand Shark family!
"The search for this particular position, due to the complexities of the pandemic, took much longer than usual but brought forth a huge amount of interest and an incredibly deep field. Ted stood out among the best from the very beginning and proved himself to be the best person for the job."
Falkner moves to the Lowcountry after spending the last four seasons at Madonna University (Livonia, Mich.). While with the fellow NAIA program, Falkner posted a head-turning 103-54 overall record (.656 winning percentage) as the head coach of the Crusaders. Even during the shortened 2020 campaign, MU went 17-9 and went undefeated on its home turf (6-0).
One of his best seasons as a head coach occurred in 2019 when he led the Crusader program to a 37-22 overall record and a 15-7 mark in WHAC (Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference) play. During that same season, Madonna posted wins over No. 5 Marian, No. 15 Bryan College, No. 22 Indiana Tech, No. 23 Bellevue, RV (receiving votes) Cumberlands and RV Concordia. Despite falling in the WHAC Championship game, MU played in the NAIA Opening Round where it went 2-2, as both defeats came from No. 1 Tennessee Wesleyan (2019 National Champions).
The 2018 campaign was also a strong year for the seven-year head coach, as he led the Crusaders to a 36-18 overall record and a 16-6 mark in conference action. They collected five wins over nationally-ranked opponents en route to claiming the WHAC Championship Title over Indiana Tech.
Along the way, Falkner saw several Crusaders earn national awards. In 2017, Falkner coached a NAIA Honorable Mention All-American and the WHAC Player of the Year. In 2018 and 2019, a Crusader earned WHAC Newcomer of the Year, and in 2018, he saw a player earn a NAIA Gold Glove award, which was the first-ever in the program's history. He also coached three WHAC Gold Glove performers, eight WHAC All-Conference members, 31 WHAC All-Academic honorees and 15 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes.
Prior to Madonna, Falkner was the head coach at Viterbo University (La Crosse, Wis.) for two seasons. While with the V-Hawks, he coaches five NSAA All-Conference and four NSAA All-Academic honorees.
Falkner will move to the Lowcountry with his wife Katie and their two sons - Jackson and Miles.
During the extensive search, USCB assistant baseball coach Zach Roberts held the reigns of the program during the hiring process.
"While we're excited for Coach Falkner to get to campus, I have to say that in the interim period I could not be more thankful to Coach Roberts. He not only kept the program afloat during these past few stressful months but kept it steered in the right direction. Coach Roberts is a huge asset to the Sand Shark Baseball program, and I'm so thankful he'll continue to be part of our team moving forward," said Monahan.
