Brent McNeil joined the North Florida baseball coaching staff in January of 2016 after a two-year stint at Indiana State University as the school’s Director of Baseball Operations. For the Ospreys, McNeil serves as the team’s pitching coach and the camp coordinator for Smoke Laval Baseball Camps.
Under McNeil’s guidance, North Florida led the ASUN and was ranked 47th in the NCAA with a 3.78 staff ERA in 2016. The Ospreys also owned the league’s lowest WHIP (2.78) and had the league’s best strikeout-to-walk-ratio (2.52). Nationally the Ospreys were ranked 14th overall in WHIP and had the 34th best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the NCAA.
The summer of 2016, McNeil managed the Lafayette Aviators of the Prospect League. In their inaugural season, the Aviators won 30 games under his tutelage and were second in the league in both runs and hits. Six of his eight position players were named to the Prospect League All-Star Team.
In a similar role at Indiana State, McNeil was the camp director and also assisted in various different elements of the recruiting process, video breakdown of the pitching staff and the coordination of alumni events. He also played a pivotal part in the summer placement of the Sycamore underclassmen.
Prior to being named manager of the Aviators, McNeil was the pitching coach for the Danville Dans of the Prospect League who were a final four team in the summer of 2014. Pitchers under his tutelage that season included former North Florida hurlers, Bryan Baker (11th Round - Colorado Rockies) and Corbin Olmstead (UNF D-1 Era Career Save Leader).
McNeil’s previous coaching stops include Lake Land College (Associate Head Coach), Heston College (Pitching Coach/Recruiting Coordinator) and the LIDS Indiana Bulls (Pitching Coach). In 2012, a year removed from his playing career, he coached the elite Indiana Bulls 18U team to a Premier League Title. In his one year at Lake Land (NJCAA DI, Mattoon, Ill.), the team improved their team record by ten wins from the previous year, and one pitcher captured all-conference honors.
McNeil played four years of collegiate baseball. He started his career at Lincoln Trail Community College under current Indiana State Head Coach Mitch Hannahs. In 2009, he earned a spot on the all-conference team and transferred to Eastern Illinois University (NCAA Division I, Ohio Valley Conference) for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. McNeil holds many records at EIU, and was named the team’s 2011 Pitcher of the Year. He is in the Top 5 all-time in lowest single-season ERA (2.18), Top 10 in Career ERA (3.89), fewest walks per 9 innings (2.01), and finished second in the nation in 2010 when he picked off a school-record, nine base runners.
McNeil is a native of Lafayette, Ind. and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology and Sports Studies from Eastern Illinois University.
