Cliff Godwin (born February 2, 1978) is an American baseball coach and former catcher, who is the current head baseball coach of the East Carolina Pirates. He played college baseball at East Carolina from 1998 to 2001 for head coach

Keith LeClair Keith Aaron LeClair (February 26, 1966 – July 16, 2006) was an American athlete and later head baseball coach at Western Carolina University (Player, 1985–88 and Coach 1992–97). During his playing days, LeClair played for former Clemson Uni ...

Early years

Godwin was raised in Snow Hill, North Carolina. He attended

Greene Central High School Greene Central High School is a public high school located in Greene County, North Carolina. The middle school feeding upcoming students into Greene Central is Greene County Middle School. The school mascot is the Ram. It is one of five schools ...

in Snow Hill.

Playing career

Godwin enrolled at East Carolina University to play for the Pirates. He red-shirted his freshman season. Over the next four years, he started 126 games as a catcher, and served three years as team co-captain. He batted .322 with 15 home runs and

RBI RBI most often refers to: *Reserve Bank of India *Run batted in RBI may also refer to: Organisations *Radio Berlin International *Raiffeisen Bank International *Reed Business Information *Restaurant Brands International *Ruđer Bošković In ...

s as a senior and was named 1st team All-

Colonial Athletic Association The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universi ...

. In addition to his playing career at East Carolina, Godwin also graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science in management information systems, and went on to earn his MBA from ECU in 2002. He was a two-time Academic All-American selection during his time as a player. After graduating, Godwin spent two years playing professionally with the Gateway Grizzlies and the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League.

Coaching career

After his two years in the Frontier League, Godwin began his coaching career as an assistant at Kinston High School in Kinston, North Carolina, 20 minutes from his hometown of Snow Hill. He spent one season at Kinston before moving on to his first position at the Division I level, with the UNC Wilmington Seahawks. He spent two seasons at UNC Wilmington before moving on to Vanderbilt. At Vanderbilt, he served as the Commodores' Director of Baseball Operations before joining Paul Mainieri's staff at

Notre Dame Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to: * Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France * University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States ** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...

for the 2005 season. After two seasons at Notre Dame, he followed Mainieri to LSU prior to the 2007 season. In 2008, Godwin's LSU offense hit .306 with 100 home runs and 95

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

s. After two seasons with Mainieri at LSU, which included a trip to the College World Series in 2008, Godwin coached at

UCF The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

. With UCF, he helped with numerous highly ranked recruiting classes and helped lead the Knights to the NCAA Tournament in 2011, their first appearance since 2004. Following his stint at UCF, Godwin moved on to Ole Miss, where he served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. In 2014, he helped lead the Rebels to their first College World Series appearance since 1972. On June 25, 2014, Godwin was hired as head coach at his alma mater, East Carolina University, replacing former Pirates head coach Billy Godwin. Godwin's first career game as a head coach came on February 13, 2015, a 3–1 loss to Virginia. His first win came on February 21, 2015, against

UNC Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-al ...

Head coaching record

The following is a table of Godwin's yearly records as an NCAA head baseball coach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godwin, Cliff Living people 1978 births Baseball coaches from North Carolina UNC Wilmington Seahawks baseball coaches Vanderbilt Commodores baseball coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball coaches LSU Tigers baseball coaches UCF Knights baseball coaches Ole Miss Rebels baseball coaches East Carolina Pirates baseball coaches East Carolina Pirates baseball players People from Snow Hill, North Carolina Evansville Otters players Gateway Grizzlies players