ABILENE – ACU head baseball coach
Britt Bonneau announced Saturday afternoon following his team's regular-season finale against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi that he is resigning after 22 seasons as the Wildcats' skipper.
Bonneau's announcement came on the heels of a season-ending loss to the Islanders, capping the Wildcats' season at 21-33 overall and 5-25 in the Southland Conference. The loss leaves Bonneau with a career record of 756-511-1 in those 22 seasons in charge of the ACU program.
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Britt Bonneau put together an amazing run as the head coach of the ACU baseball program, and he will be missed," ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert said. "He loves ACU and has been a great ambassador for the university and ACU Athletics and that will never change. He has produced championship teams on the field and terrific young men who have gone on to enjoy tremendous personal and professional success away from the field."
Schubert said a national search for Bonneau's replacement will begin immediately.
STATEMENT FROM BRITT BONNEAU
"First I have to thank my wife, Cari. She has always been my No. 1 supporter and ACU baseball's biggest fan. She's at every home game – good weather or bad – and she raised our four girls (Jaci, Mati, Scotlyn and Landry) into beautiful young women while I was coaching and recruiting. She has provided hundreds of meals for our players and opened our home to them for 22 years. She's been like another assistant coach for me and another mom to so many players. I couldn't have done any of this without her, and I love her very much and thank her from the bottom of my heart.
"My daughters have been little sisters to so many of our players over the years, and they've never wavered in their support of their dad. I've watched them grow up from babies into wonderful women of faith, and I'm so proud of each of them and look forward to watching them continue to grow. My parents (Ed and Barbara Bonneau) and the rest of my family have been constants at ACU games both home and away, and they've helped build this program as much as anyone. They've given me constant love, encouragement and support through the ups and downs of 22 seasons and I love them very much.
"I was a 26-year-old kid in 1997 who had been an assistant for four seasons when (ACU vice president) Dr. Gary McCaleb and (former director of athletics) Stan Lambert took a chance on me and hired me to be the head coach at ACU. I was confident we could win at ACU, and I appreciate their trust and support of ACU baseball and me. Of course, I might not have had this career at ACU if (former head coach) Jimmy Shankle hadn't hired me to be his assistant coach in 1996, so I'm extremely grateful to Coach Shankle for providing me with this life-changing opportunity.
"For 22 years I've been blessed with many great assistant coaches, and I'm extremely grateful to them for all they've done for ACU baseball. The one that has meant the most to my family and me is, of course, Brandon Stover. He was with me for 18 of my 22 years, the first four as a player (1999-2002) and the final 14 as an assistant coach (2003-16). I can never adequately thank him for everything he and his family poured into this program, and I hope they know they'll always be a part of our family.
"No program can ever be a success without great players, and we've been fortunate to have more of those than we can count. I've watched those young boys show up here as wide-eyed freshmen or junior college transfers and seen them leave as maturing young men. Now it's awesome to see them as grown men with wives and families of their own and making their mark in the world.
"When I got the job, Al and Dottie Scott and the Scott family – along with (former head coach) Bill Gilbreth and Nolan Ryan – had turned an old piece of land into one of the best baseball stadiums in Division II baseball. With the help of other donors throughout the years – Dr. Bart and Amanda Bourland, Dan and Cathy Haught and so many others – we've been able to make our field a terrific recruiting tool. There's no way we could have done everything we've been able to do here without all of the great donors and fans and supporters we've had over the years.
"I've got so many great memories of my 23 years here (22 as head coach) that it would be almost impossible to narrow them down to just a few. We've also had so many great players that I hesitate to start naming them because I won't be able to name them all. But so many things have been flooding my mind the last few days as I contemplated this move. Certainly those first three Lone Star Conference championship teams (2000, 2001 and 2002) and the last two (2009 and 2010) will always be special. The 2000 team that went to the regional tournament for the first time with me as the head coach is a special group. I remember so many great games against Delta State, Southeastern Oklahoma State, Central Oklahoma, Tarleton State and Angelo State and other teams in conference play and regional tournaments. I remember the 2003 conference tournament when we were down to our last out and Chris Churchill hit a home run to keep us alive in the tournament. That win helped us get into the regional tournament in Cleveland, Miss., which we won by beating Delta State twice to earn a trip to the World Series in Montgomery, Ala.
"We had so many guys take the field every day and compete their tails off and play the right way, and that's what we hung our hats on for a long time. That was never more evident than in the 2010 regional tournament when our team had to play four games in a 24-hour period to have a chance to get back to the World Series. The tournament was delayed for a couple of days by rain and we were in the loser's bracket and had to win two games one night (May 17), playing the first game starting at 7:30 p.m. and ending at about 11:45 p.m. Then we started another elimination game a few minutes before midnight and beat Incarnate Word to stay alive. I'll never forget Cameron Aspaas pitching the last five innings of the first game to get the win in extra innings, and then started the game against Incarnate Word and got us the lead in one of the gutsiest performances of any player I've ever had. That game against Incarnate Word ended at almost 3 a.m. and we were back at the ballpark just about 10 hours later to play Central Missouri, and we had to beat UCM twice to get to the World Series. We won the first game pretty easily and were right in the thick of the championship game until we flat ran out of gas and lost to a really good Central Missouri team. But that team won 50 games – still the only ACU team to ever do that – and gave our fans so many great memories.
"Even in the transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I, we've had some great moments: beating Arizona in 2014 and then ending the 2015 season with wins over Arizona and Hawai'i. Last year we took the No. 1 team in the country (Oregon State) to the wire twice in a three-game series, and this season we beat TCU. We also lost one-run games to No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 2 TCU and No. 5 Texas Tech the last couple of years, proving we can play with the best teams in the country. I appreciate so much the players who were here during the transition and didn't have anything to play for, but went out there every day and played hard and did their best. As I said, we've had great players from Ronny Haring, Mark Ferry, Brandon McNab, Jeremy Smith and Robert Bittinger early on. And then Brad Massey, Corey Tidwell, Ryan Williams, Marc Thompson, Grant Gregg, Kristian Allen, Duane Welch, J-Bob Thomas, Matt Davidson, Casey Towery, John David Perry, James Karcher, Chris Churchill, Oscar Vargas, Louis Munoz, Adam Thomas, Brandon Moore, Brandon Stover, Creighton Bryan, Justin Whitlock, Corey Tidwell, Marcelino Escalante, Ryan Barker, Ruben Rivera, Johnny Zepeda, Cody Cure, Ben Maynard, Ben Brockman, Joel Wells and Jameson Maj. Then you think about Willie Uechi, Matt Spotanski, Bret Bochsler, Allen Smith, Chris Wiman, Travis Latz, Mike Elkerson, Trey and Cameron Watten, Jordan Schmitt, Chris Hall, Alec Sowards, Thomas Bumpass, Preston Vancil, Brad Rutherford, Aaron Oliver, Will Calhoun, Aaron Lambrix, Colton Hall and Kyle Giusti And then in this Division I era, we've had guys like Seth Spivey, Tyler Eager, Russell Crippen, Aaron Draper, Garrett deMeyere, Brady Rodriguez, Derek Scott, Dalon Farkas, and Matt Munoz leading the way for us. I know I'm probably leaving a lot of guys out, but I appreciate every one of the players who ever put on the ACU uniform and played for me in my 22 years as the head coach.
"My family and I love ACU and it will always be part of us. I might not be the head baseball coach any longer, but I'll always be grateful for my time at ACU, the people I worked with, the friends we've made and the players I've coached. We will always be big fans of the ACU Wildcats and we will be part of the ACU community for many years to come. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this baseball program and our lives for the last 23 years. Your care and concern for the program and my family will never be forgotten."
BRITT BONNEAU CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
• 22 years as head baseball coach ties men's tennis coach
Hutton Jones as the second-longest serving head coach in ACU athletics history, trailing the 29 years that A.B. Morris served as men's basketball coach (1924-55).
• Coached nine different ACU players who were voted Lone Star Conference MVP from 2000-10.
• Coached six different ACU pitchers who were voted LSC Pitcher of the Year from 1998-2008.
• Coached two LSC Freshmen of the Year
• Six-time Lone Star Conference Coach of the Year (2001, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010).
• Nine-time Louisville Slugger LSC South Division Coach of the Year.
• Coached 17 different All-America players, including six first team selections, three second team picks, five third team selections and three honorable mention picks.
• Coached 28 first team all-region players.
• Coached two ABCA / Rawlings Gold Glove winners
• Won Lone Star Conference Postseason Tournament championships in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2010.
• Won LSC South Division championships in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010.
• Led ACU to the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
• Coached ACU to the 2003 regional championship and the program's only appearance in the NCAA Division II World Series.
• In the NCAA Division I era, coached five all-Southland Conference players.
• Coached ACU to wins over two Power 5 conference members: Arizona (2014 and 2015) and TCU (2018).
