Baseball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Phone:
- 919-962-2351
The 2021 baseball season is Mike Fox’s 23rd as head coach of the Tar Heels and 38th as a collegiate head coach. The Asheville, N.C., native is a 1979 graduate of the University of North Carolina and has played in or coached in every College World Series victory in school history.
Among active coaches, Fox is No. 1 in all-time wins with 1,487 and No. 1 in winning percentage at .731. He is seventh all-time in wins and 15th in percentage among all coaches, active or not.
Fox is 948-406-1 in 22 seasons at Carolina. He has 168 more wins than any coach in Carolina Baseball history and has led the Tar Heels to seven of their 11 appearances in the College World Series, finishing second in the nation in 2006 and 2007. His teams also advanced to Omaha in 2008 and 2009, becoming the first school in Atlantic Coast Conference history to play in the College World Series four consecutive seasons. The Tar Heels went back to Omaha three more times in 2010s, winning Super Regionals in 2011, 2013 and again in 2018.
Under Fox, Carolina has won the ACC Tournament in 2007, 2013 and 2019 and finished first in the ACC Coastal Division seven times (2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2018).
He was Baseball America’s National Coach of the Year in 2008, is a three-time Atlantic Region Coach of the Year (an award chosen by his peers in the American Baseball Coaches Association) and was the ACC Coach of the Year in 2018.
Inducted in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, Fox has led his teams to NCAA Tournament play in 32 of his 36 seasons as a head coach, including 15 trips to the NCAA Division I and Division III World Series. Sixteen of Carolina’s 18 College World Series wins have come under Fox’s direction in the last 14 years, and he played in UNC’s two other CWS wins in 1978.
Fox’s program sets a high standard in the classroom and the community, as well. In 2007, UNC was ranked No. 1 for both its play on the field (by Baseball America) and academically (by the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate). The Tar Heels are regulars on the ACC’s Academic Honor Roll and Fox has coached seven ESPN The Magazine Academic all-district selections in the last 10 years, including Adam Warren, who was an Academic All-America in 2009, and Benton Moss, who in 2015 became the first UNC baseball player to earn first-team Academic All-America honors.
Fox has averaged 44.6 wins per season at UNC, leading the Tar Heels to 50 or more victories five times, including a school-record 59 in 2013. Fox recorded his 1,400th career victory in 2018 and won his 900th at Carolina in 2019.
Major League Baseball teams have drafted 106 Tar Heels to play for Fox, including 16 first-round or supplemental selections. Five former Tar Heels made their MLB debuts in 2019 (Skye Bolt, Zac Gallen, Trevor Kelley, Mike Moran and Trent Thornton). Among the 27 Tar Heels to play for Fox and reach the major leagues are Andrew Miller, the Most Valuable Player of the 2016 American League Championship Series; Matt Harvey, who started for the New York Mets in the 2013 All-Star Game; Kyle Seager, an All-Star and Gold Glove third baseman for the Seattle Mariners; and Daniel Bard, Chris Iannetta, Colin Moran, Jacob Stallings and Adam Warren.
His 2020 campaign was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. UNC competed in just 19 games and recorded 12 wins. After the season, sophomore Aaron Sabato was taken with the 27th overall pick by the Minnesota Twins, which marks the 16th first round pick in Fox's tenure at UNC.
In 2019, Carolina went 46-19, swept four games to win the ACC Tournament, won the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional, and came within a victory of capturing another Super Regional. Freshman Aaron Sabato earned first-team America, ACC and National Freshman of the Year and first-team All-ACC honors; Michael Busch was the MVP of the ACC Tournament and first-team All-ACC performer and became a first-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers; right-handed pitcher Tyler Baum was a second-round selection by the Oakland A’s; and shortstop Danny Serretti also was a Freshman All-America.
Fox has coached 37 first-team All-ACC selections and his Tar Heel players have received 32 All-America honors. Dustin Ackley, who set the record for most base hits in the history of the College World Series, was an All-America three times, including first team in 2009; southpaw starter Kent Emanuel was a two-time pick in 2012 and 2013 (first team); and Colin Moran earned first-team honors in both 2011 and 2013.
Sabato broke the UNC freshman record in 2019 with 18 homers and became Fox’s sixth rookie to be named ACC Freshman of the Year. Sabato joined Adam Greenberg (2000), Bard (2004), Ackley (2007), Colin Moran (2011) and Ashton McGee (2017). Ackley (2006) and Moran (2011) were Baseball America’s National Freshman of the Year and Moran was the ACC Player of the Year as a junior.
Awards notwithstanding, Omaha and Carolina’s seven tips to play in the College World Series in the last 14 seasons is what has established Fox as one of the top coaches in college baseball. The Tar Heels had reached the pinnacle of college baseball in 1960, 1966, 1978 and 1989, but became fixtures, first in Rosenblatt Stadium, and later in TD Ameritrade Park.
In 2018, All-America third baseman Kyle Datres led UNC to the ACC Coastal Division championship for the second consecutive season and were rewarded with a No. 6 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. UNC swept Stetson in the Super Regional to advance to Omaha.
Colin Moran, Emanuel, Thornton and Cody Stubbs led the 2013 Tar Heels to a school-record 59 wins. UNC held down in the top spot in the national polls for much of the season and earned its first No. 1 national seed. UNC marched on to the CWS with dramatic, winner-take-all games over Florida Atlantic in the regional (12-11 in 13 innings) and South Carolina in the supers. Once in Nebraska, the Tar Heels finished tied for third after wins over LSU and NC State.
In 2011, Levi Michael, Moran, Tommy Coyle and ace Patrick Johnson led the Tar Heels to 51 wins, including five straight in Chapel Hill ion the post-season, capped by a two-game Super Regional sweep over Stanford.
The 2006 through 2009 seasons marked the return of Carolina Baseball to the game’s largest stage, accomplishing something no ACC baseball team had ever done or has done since – play in the CWS in four consecutive seasons.
In 2006, a starting rotation of Miller, Bard and Robert Woodard led UNC to a then-school record 54 wins, including an unprecedented 38 home victories. UNC swept three games as it hosted its first NCAA regional at Boshamer Stadium since 1983, then stunned host Alabama, winning the super regional on a walk-off home run by Chad Flack. The Tar Heels captured the hearts of Carolina fans by winning their first four games in the CWS, but lost to Oregon State in the championship series, two games to one.
Miller was Baseball America’s National Player of the Year and won the Roger Clemens Award as the nation’s top pitcher and joined shortstop Josh Horton as All-America selections. Senior relief ace Jonathan Hovis led the nation in ERA at 1.17, while Flack set Carolina’s single-season hit record with 112.
Despite losing Bard and Miller in the first round of the 2006 MLB Draft, the Tar Heels again reached the CWS championship series in 2007, where they again finished second. Carolina won a school record and NCAA-best 57 games and first ACC tournament title in 17 seasons. Ackley, who hit .402, the first of his three straight seasons batting better than .400, and Reid Fronk led the offensive assault, while Woodard, closer Andrew Carignan, Rob Wooten and 12-game winner Adam Warren were the top arms.
In 2008, the Tar Heels won 54 games with a pitching staff that yielded just 2.92 earned runs per game. For the first time in school history, four Tar Heels – Ackley, Tim Fedroff, Seager and Alex White – earned All-America honors. Like it did all season with Boshamer Stadium under renovation, Carolina hosted and won the NCAA regional and super regional in Cary, and all five games to make it three CWS trips in a row. Carolina finished third in Omaha, in a season in which the Tar Heels swept No. 1 Miami in May and became the consensus No. 1 ranked team in the county for the first time in school history. Flack, who had hit a clutch homer in the 2007 super regional against South Carolina, concluded his career in 2008 as Carolina’s all-time leader in hits, games, at-bats and total bases.
“Coach Fox’s biggest impact on his players is how he makes your experience at UNC much larger than baseball,” says Flack. “He truly cares about each player’s future beyond baseball. “(The postseason) home runs highlight those years on the field for me, but what I cherish most is experiencing those moments with my teammates. The relationships you build with your brothers will always outshine anything you did on the field.”
The Tar Heels made it 4 for 4 in 2009, driven by Ackley, a pure hitting machine who set new standards as UNC’s career leader in average, hits, runs and total bases. Ackley led the ACC with a .417 average and 22 home runs. He was named Rivals.com National Player of the Year and became the first three-time All-America in school history. He had 28 base hits in three trips to the College World Series, setting the all-time record (since tied) for most hits in CWS history.
The 2006-09 Tar Heels were the first under to reach Omaha, but the foundation for that success began in the seasons leading up those seasons. The Tar Heels won 40-plus games and played in the NCAA Tournament in each season from 2002-05. The 2003 squad swept the NCAA Starkville Regional, including a pair of wins over host Mississippi State. That marked the first time Carolina won a regional since 1989.
All-Americas Marshall Hubbard and Chris Iannetta led the Tar Heels to top-10 rankings in 2004 and 2005. Hubbard drove in a school-record 83 runs ‘04; Iannetta was one of three finalists for the Johnny Bench Award, presented to nation’s top catcher.
The 1999 season was Fox’s first as head coach in Chapel Hill. UNC won its first 16 games, reached No. 3 in the national polls and grabbed the No. 3 seed in the NCAA Palo Alto Regional.
Director of Athletics Dick Baddour hired Fox as the 24th head coach in UNC history on May 7, 1998.
Fox spent 15 seasons as the head coach at N.C. Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, where he led the Battling Bishops to 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, eight trips to the Division III College World Series and the 1989 national championship. His teams posted 15 consecutive top-20 finishes and won 11 Dixie Conference championships.
His record of 539-141-4 at Wesleyan ranked second in winning percentage (.791) among all active Division III head coaches.
Fox played second base for the Tar Heels from 1976-78, helping UNC advance to the 1978 College World Series, where UNC tied for third. As a senior, he hit .277, tied for the team lead with six home runs and was named to the CWS All-Tournament team. Fox played on the UNC junior varsity basketball team under Eddie Fogler in the 1975 and 1976 seasons.
Fox has two degrees from UNC – he earned his undergraduate degree in physical education in 1978 and a master’s in teaching a year later. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at Carolina in 1979 and had his first head coaching job at Millbrook High School in Raleigh in 1980 and ’81. He was named head coach at Wesleyan in September 1982. He added athletic director’s duties in 1985.
The ABCA selected Fox as the Division III National Coach of the Year in 1989 after leading the Battling Bishops to the national title. He was the NCAA South Region Coach of the Year and Dixie Conference Coach of the Year seven times each and coached 29 All-Americas Wesleyan, where 92 percent of his players earned their degrees.
The 1974 graduate of East Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, N.C., played independent professional baseball for one year.
Fox and his wife of 34 years, Cheryl, have a son, Matthew (31), a daughter, Morgan Pearce (28), son-in-law Tyler Pearce, and are grandparents to Morgan and Tyler’s son, Lincoln.
