Ben Grimm Named Interim Baseball Coach at Oneonta State
SUNY Oneonta Director of Athletics, Tracey Ranieri, announced that Benjamin Grimm has been named the interim baseball coach effective immediately. Grimm will assume the duties as head coach for the 2012 season.
Grimm comes to Oneonta after serving most recently as the assistant coach at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. His responsibilities were as the primary pitching coach, recruiting coordinator, camps coordinator, strength and conditioning coordinator and fundraising contact. In his first year as pitching coach with the Continentals, the team’s ERA dropped three full runs from the previous season while the squad enjoyed its longest winning streak in over six years. In addition, he started a Fall Prospects Clinic and Mid-Winter Baseball Clinic.
Grimm is the President and head coach of the Sherrill Silversmiths of the New York Collegiate Baseball League where he has built a professional baseball franchise from the ground up. He is in charge of all facets of the organization, which operates during the summer months with rosters made up of collegiate baseball players from around the country at all levels. In 2009, Grimm started a not-for-profit organization, the Sherrill Athletic Club, Inc., which is set up to run the Silversmiths. In 2009, he led the squad to a winning season, while in 2010, he guided the team to a league runner-up finish while having its first player sign a major league contract with the Atlanta Braves.
From 2007-10, Grimm served as the assistant baseball coach at NCAA Div. II Davis & Elkins College. During his tenure as the pitching coach, the team increased its win total from nine to 25 and earned a ranking of No. 8 in the 2010 NCBWA Atlantic Region poll. The pitching staff also improved its ERA by a total of 3.30 runs in the seasons he was there.
Prior to Davis & Elkins, Grimm served as the assistant baseball coach at Cazenovia College for the spring of 2007 working with the pitching staff of the Wildcats. While there, he coached one All-North East Athletic Conference pitcher.
Collegiately, Grimm played two seasons at Onondaga Community College before finishing his career at Concord University in Athens, WV. During Grimm’s final season at Concord, the Mountain Lions finished 25-23 and made a run to the championship game of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. In 20 appearances, he was 4-3 with 38 strikeouts in 39.2 innings pitched.
In 2004, Grimm received an Associates Degree from Onondaga Community College in Recreation Leadership. In 2006, he received his Bachelors Degree in Recreation and Tourism from Concord and, in 2010; he completed a Masters Degree in Athletic Coaching Education from West Virginia University.
Oneonta finished last season with an overall record 21-17 while advancing to the second day of the SUNYAC tournament.
