The list of highlights, awards and recognition for Mesa baseball coach Tony Cirelli has always been long, but was missing one key ingredient – a national championship. In 2014 he scaled that pinnacle to complete as good a resume as just about anyone.
The MCC coach just completed his 26th season leading the T-Birds as head coach, but his association with the school actually goes far beyond that. He played for Mesa in 1981 and then, after graduating from Arizona State, where he received a Master’s Degree in Education, he returned to the MCC campus as an assistant coach.
Cirelli spent ten seasons as an assistant, taking over the head job in 1995. Right by his side in the dugout since has been assistant coach, and recruiting coordinator, Doug Rose. The accolades have accumulated ever since.
That 2014 national title had to be one of the top moments of the New York City native’s career. It wasn’t just winning the title, but how the T-Birds accomplished the feat. They lost a first-round game and had to battle through five elimination contests before taking the championship in extra innings.
Two years ago the T-Birds came oh so close again, reaching the title game before falling to host school, Northeastern Oklahoma-End, 5-4. Last year there was no chance at another title as COVID-19 wiped out the NJCAA national tournament.
During the 2019 season he won his 900th game at Mesa, the second most wins in ACCAC history and the highest total at MCC in any sport.
His record is now 939-559. Team titles have accumulated over the years: three ACCAC championships, four Southwest District titles and five appearances in the NJCAA World Series.
His teams have made 21 playoff appearances and have been nationally-ranked for 18 consecutive years. In fact, the NJCAA Division II pre-season poll this year puts Mesa in second place. The T-Birds have finished in first place in the ACCAC Division II in ten of 17 years including six of the last eight.
In terms of player honors for those coached by Cirelli there have been many. Start with four reaching the ultimate level, playing in the major leagues. There have been 23 All-Americans and 60 who have either been drafted or signed to play professionally. The ACCAC all-conference teams and all-region selections have been filled with 108 MCC players.
But, don’t think that Cirelli-coached teams are only about baseball. He is one of the strongest believers in having educated student-athletes and the numbers bear that out. His teams have been honored as a whole for academic excellence for six of the last eight years and 50 individuals have been cited for all-academic honors by the NJCAA in just the last six years alone.
Cirelli even has an international coaching background. He has coached in the Italian Baseball League for four summers since 2012.
