WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Sean Kinney, one of the top young coaches in the Pacific Northwest, is head coach of the Whitman College baseball program. Kinney graduated from Whitman College with a degree in economics and a minor in history in 2005 and started his coaching career at the College immediately after as an assistant baseball coach.
During his playing days at Whitman, Kinney was an All-Northwest Conference center fielder. Formerly, Kinney was also head coach of the Bend Elks, a member of the West Coast League (WCL), a nine-team league that provides summer playing opportunities for some of the top college players in the country.
"This opportunity to be the head coach at Whitman is obviously a dream come true for me," Kinney said during his first season in the position at Whitman. "As someone who played for Whitman, I can say that no one cares more about this program and its student athletes than I do."
Upon being named head coach, Kinney's first priority was to assemble a stellar coaching staff and to have a strong Whitman presence at high school tournaments and camps on the West Coast during the summer and fall months. Kinney believes that these efforts are "critical to the future success of our program" when it comes to recruiting Whitman College's next baseball superstars. Given the College's NCAA Division III affiliation and status as the premier liberal arts college in the Northwest, Whitman offers an "extremely unique and very valuable experience" to its student-athletes, Kinney says. Since being named head coach, his recruiting efforts have focused on finding the best student athletes from all around the country. Finding those players takes time and effort, says Kinney, "but we plan to hit the showcase tournaments and camps hard while also establishing quality contacts with high school and summer ball coaches."
Another focus of Kinney's is to support his athletes on and off the field. "Once the school year begins in September, we do everything we can to help them as they work to achieve their potential, both on the diamond and in the classroom," Kinney said. "There's no question that Whitman's combination of outstanding academic and athletic programs go hand-in-hand in developing future leaders. What we teach in athletics are life lessons. What we build is character that can help our young people be successful for the rest of their lives," he believes.
Dean Snider, director of athletics at Whitman, was ecstatic when Kinney accepted the head coach position in 2012. "Sean has been one of the most valued members of our department for as long as I've been the athletic director," he said.
"Sean is a young man with a tremendous depth of character and talent," Snider continued. "He is well respected by players on the team and other coaches throughout the greater baseball community."
Kinney, a native of the Edmonds and Kenmore (Wash.) communities, is a graduate of Seattle's Bishop Blanchet High School, where he was a three-year varsity starter in the outfield and at second base. He was team captain and MVP as a senior, and he was twice named to the All-Metro First Team.
As a college student, Kinney played the role of Lou Gehrig's Iron Horse at Whitman, taking the field in every game over four seasons while starting all but one game. He collected 197 career hits while posting a .360 batting average. He led Whitman in hits and runs scored in each of his four seasons, and he topped the team three times in stolen bases, walks and on-base percentage. Kinney enjoyed his best season as a junior, when he finished third in the NWC batting race with a .396 batting average over the entire season. He hit .408 in 24 NWC games that season. Kinney finished his senior campaign with a .381 batting average – the sixth-best mark in the conference that season. He was voted to the All-NWC First Team as a both a junior and senior while serving as a team captain for both seasons. He received Honorable Mention recognition as a freshman after hitting .331 as a rookie. Kinney was also a superb defender in center field, playing a string of 90 consecutive games at one point without making an error. That streak spanned all or parts of all four seasons.
After making an error midway through his freshman season, Kinney went nearly three full years before committing another miscue in the outfield. His run of perfection ended midway through his senior season.
Kinney played one game at shortstop as a junior and then logged 11 more games at that position as a senior, primarily to help solidify what was a young Whitman infield.
In addition to his spring ball at Whitman, Kinney played two summers with the Bend Elks. He and Ellsbury were teammates in 2002 and he was part of the Bend's 2004 title run. Kinney also played one summer (2003) with the Everett Merchants.
Extra Innings:
- Kinney is the 16th baseball coach at Whitman since the legendary R.V. Borleske took the coaching reins in the spring of 1916 ... Borleske kept coaching until 1947 (except for breaks during the two World Wars) and won 11 conference titles ...Other than Borleske, the longest-tenured Whitman baseball coach was the late Max Seachris, who called the shots from 1978 through 1995 ... Like Kinney, both Borleske and Seachris were standout athletes at Whitman before moving into coaching ...
- Kinney is the fifth head coach from the Bend Elks program in 12 years to move into a collegiate head coaching position ... Kinney gives the nine-team Northwest Conference three relatively young baseball coaches ... Aaron Swick, who graduated from Cal-Berkeley in 2005 – the same year Kinney graduated from Whitman – is starting his fifth year as the head coach at Willamette ... Dan Ramsey, who was hired at Whitworth at age 22 after graduating from that school in 2008, is also starting his fifth year as the Pirates skipper
