Harmony native Rob Childress, who had led Texas A&M to 13 consecutive NCAA baseball tournaments before this season, will not have his contract renewed, the school announced on Sunday.
Childress, who was born in Gilmer and was a star baseball player at Harmony High School, coached the Aggies for 16 seasons.
His teams won six NCAA Regional titles, two conference regular-season crowns, four league tournament titles and made College World Series appearances in 2011 and 2017. His record as head coach of the Aggies was 622-336-3, trailing only Mark Johnson (876) and Tom Chandler (660) in coaching victories at Texas A&M.
“Coach Childress is a great man and we appreciate his long-term dedication to Texas A&M and for leading our baseball program with class and dignity in every phase,” Texas A&M athletics director Ross Bjork said. “Coach Childress deserves our respect and admiration for how he represented our program, and we wish him and his family all the best in their next chapter. I also want to thank our players for their determination and perseverance during this season with all of the protocols in place.
“In our analysis, we believe the program needs a new voice and a new identity, and our search for the next head coach will begin immediately. We, as Aggies, have high expectations for Texas A&M baseball, and we believe this is the best college baseball program in the country and we will attract a great head coach.”
Childress’ teams won four conference tournament championships — 2007, 2010 and 2011 in the Big 12 and 2016 in the SEC. His 2008 and 2011 squads won the Big 12 regular season title.
After dropping a 13-6 game in 13 innings to LSU on Friday, the Aggies failed to make the SEC Tournament. That also ended any chance the Aggies had of extending their school-record 13 straight NCAA tournament appearances, which was the third-longest streak in the country, trailing Florida State (42) and Vanderbilt (14).
The Aggies ended the season with an 8-2 loss to LSU on Saturday. A&M (29-27, 9-21), failing to make the SEC tournament for the first time since joining the league in 2013, finished 13th in the conference, ahead of only Missouri (15-36, 8-22).
“I’m very proud of the things that we’ve accomplished over the 16 years here,” Childress said Saturday after a season-closing loss to LSU. “We’ve done things the right way and treated people the right way, and won an awful lot of games too, and a lot of championships, but that’s not my call.”
Childress graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Northwood in 1990 and earned a master’s degree of science from East Texas State (now TAMU-Commerce) in 1994. He and his wife Amanda (A&M Class of 1992) have a daughter, Hannah, a recent graduate of Nebraska, and a son, Maxwell.
Now, Bjork looks to make a home run hire.
Texas Tech’s Tim Tadlock, who has led his alma mater to four College World Series appearances and three Big 12 titles in nine seasons, was rumored to be on the short list at A&M according to TexAgs.com but he agreed to a lifetime contract with the Red Raiders on Monday, the school announced.
TCU baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle was also a possibility TexAgs.com reported, but he needed only eight words to address speculation that he’s on Texas A&M’s short list to run its baseball program.
“I have no interest in any other job,” Schlossnagle told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Monday.
Schlossnagle has taken the Horned Frogs to CWS five times in 11 years. In the 2015 and 2016 trips, TCU knocked out A&M in the super regionals.
Other possibilities are Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell and Tennessee’s Tony Vitello who has turned around the Volunteer program, which finished sixth in the SEC East in his first season in 2018 and finished first in the SEC this year. Vitello is a former assistant to Arkansas’ Dave Van Horn, who was the head coach at Nebraska during Childress’ time there as pitching coach.
BRAGGA OUT AT RICE
Rice University Director of Athletics, Recreation and Lifetime Fitness Joe Karlgaard announced on Monday he has relieved head baseball coach Matt Bragga of his duties after the Owls concluded the 2021 season with a 23-29-1 record and failed to reach the conference tournament for the first time since 1993.
“Matt Bragga is a dedicated coach who brought a track record of success with him to Rice,” Karlgaard said. “Unfortunately, we haven’t seen enough improvement in our program for us to move forward together. We thank him for his efforts to bring Rice baseball back to the postseason and wish him the very best in his future endeavors.”
Bragga compiled a 51-76-1 record in three seasons with the Owls and has a career mark of 497-468-3. His first team finished with a 26-33 record, including wins over TCU and Baylor, winning the Silver Glove Series with Houston and posting a 2-2 record at the Conference USA tournament. The Owls opened the 2020 season facing the 11th toughest non-conference schedule in the country and were 2-14 when the season shut down due to the pandemic.
Bragga came to Rice in 2018 after leading Tennessee Tech to within one game of the College World Series. He coached at Tennessee Tech for 15 seasons, building the program into a perennial power in the Ohio Valley Conference and winning coach of the year honors four times.