KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Two days after leading Tennessee baseball to its first national championship in program history, head coach Tony Vitello was tabbed as the America Baseball Coaches Association National Coach of the Year.
Vitello led the Volunteers to a single-season record 60 victories and also guided the team to SEC regular season and tournament titles as part of an historic 2024 campaign.
UT made more history as the first SEC team to reach the 60-win mark in a single season and just the fourth conference team to win the SEC regular season title, SEC Tournament title and the NCAA Men’s College World Series in the same year, cementing itself as one of the greatest teams the sport has ever seen.
The Vols were also able to end the long drought of No. 1 national seeds coming up short in the postseason, becoming just the second No. 1 overall seed to win the MCWS since the tournament switched to its current format in 1999 – joining Miami who did so in 1999.
This marks Vitello’s first national coach of the year honor from the ABCA but is the fourth time he’s been named the nation’s top college baseball coach in his seven-year career.
Tennessee’s skipper was tabbed national coach of the year in 2021 by Perfect Game and the National College Baseball Writers Association. Perfect Game selected Vitello as its national coach of the year in 2022, as well.
Vitello was also chosen as the ABCA Southeast Region Coach of the Year earlier this week, his third time earning that honor in the last four years (2021, 2022, 2024).
Under Vitello’s leadership, Tennessee has made three trips to Omaha in the last four seasons, won four combined SEC championships and three SEC eastern division titles. During that four-year span, the Vols’ 211 victories and .773 winning percentage rank No. 1 nationally.
