High Point Athletics

The 2014 season is head coach Craig Cozart’s seventh at the helm of the High Point University baseball team. Cozart has a reputation for recruiting and developing pitching staffs. He has had 30 pitchers drafted in the Major League Baseball draft under his guidance, including former Panther and current Cleveland Indian Cody Allen who was drafted in 2011.

Cozart was named High Point baseball’s fifth head coach in June 2008 and has led HPU to program records in wins and nearly every offensive category. He has helped guide the Panthers to their three-most winningest seasons in the program’s Div. I history and holds the HPU record for career conference wins. He needs just 11 wins to set the HPU Div. I career record for overall wins.

High Point won 29 games in 2013 and finished with a 15-9 record in conference play. The 15 Big South wins by the Panthers matched HPU’s Div. I single-season record and the 29 overall wins were the second most in a single season in High Point’s Div. I history.

A program-best four High Point players were drafted in the Major League Draft following the 2013 season, including three pitchers. Jaime Schultz was selected in the 14th round, Jacob Newbery was picked in the 18th round, Sean Townsley was picked in 25th round and Willie Medina was picked in the 31st round.

HPU has won at least two games in the Big South Championship three times in five seasons under Cozart and in 2012 became the first No. 7 seed to advance to the Big South Semifinals since 2000. 

In 2010, Cozart led the program to its first winning season in the Division I era, posting a 31-29 mark (15-12 Big South Conference). The Panthers finished third in the Big South Tournament, the best-ever finish for HPU and set program records in batting average, hits, doubles, home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, stolen bases and walks.

Cozart joined HPU in 2009 and led the team to a 21-32 overall record and an 11-12 record in the Big South Conference. The Panthers had a win over No. 4 North Carolina, the highest ranked opponent HPU has ever beaten, and two wins over Coastal Carolina, which was ranked 14th at the time. 

Cozart came to HPU after 12 seasons at his alma mater, UCF, where he moved up the ranks from student assistant coach to associate head coach. At UCF, Cozart helped guide the Knights to a 455-274 overall mark during his 12 seasons. In his role as the pitching coach, Cozart built a tradition of pitching excellence.

The Knights made five NCAA Tournament appearances during Cozart’s time and also captured four conference championships. Cozart’s coaching career at UCF featured six top-25 final national rankings, including a No. 7 finish in 2001 when the Knights boasted a program best 51-14 record that season. 

With a great eye for talent and an outstanding ability to develop pitchers, 35 of Cozart’s pitchers have signed professional contracts, including 30 in the Major League Draft. Cozart guided the 2008 UCF pitching staff to a No. 4 national ranking in strikeouts per nine innings after recording 537 strikeouts for the year, the second most in program history.

Three pitchers from Cozart’s 2004 staff were drafted, including Matt Fox in the first round by the Minnesota Twins and Kyle Bono in the eighth round by the Boston Red Sox. Bono earned the largest signing bonus in draft history for an eighth-rounder. In addition, junior lefty Jaime Douglas was a 26th-round selection of the Anaheim Angels.

Fox and Bono were both named All-Americans in 2004. They formed one of the nation’s elite pitching tandems. Fox finished the year 14-2 with a 1.85 ERA while Bono was 8-2 with a 1.94 ERA en route to second-team All-America status. The pair was part of a pitching staff that finished 10th in the nation in ERA with a 3.42 mark. The 2004 UCF staff also shattered the school record with 13 shutouts. It was the second pair of All-Americans Cozart coached at UCF after Justin Pope and Jason Arnold earned the honor in 2001. Pope went on to be drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round, while Arnold was a second-round pick of the New York Yankees.

From 1997 to 2001, Cozart saw the pitching staffs under his tutelage improve from a 33rd ranking in ERA with a 4.60 to a 10th place ranking in 1998 (3.94) to a best of 3.62 during the 2001 season, which ranked 16th nationally in ERA.

An outstanding pitcher in his own right at UCF from 1993-96, Cozart earned second team All-Atlantic Sun honors in 1995 and was a three-time All-Academic team member. Cozart led the Knights in wins for consecutive seasons in 1995 (10) and 1996 (7) and finished his career second all-time in UCF wins (24), fourth in appearances (65), fourth in starts (40) and fourth in strikeouts (204). Cozart was a member of three NCAA Tournament squads and three conference champion teams as a player for the Black and Gold. Cozart was drafted in the 45th round by the Atlanta Braves in 1995 and again in the 28th round by the San Francisco Giants in 1996 but decided to forego the professional ranks to further his education and begin his coaching career at his alma mater.

Cozart earned his bachelor’s of arts degree in education in December of 1996 from UCF. He is married to the former Michelle Cutright, a UCF volleyball standout during the 1990s. They are the proud parents of three boys, Caleb, Jacob and Samuel.