NC State Baseball Hires Tony Guzzo
9/16/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Sept. 16, 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. - Tony Guzzo, a 28-year veteran of college baseball, has joined the NC State coaching staff. Guzzo replaces Billy Jones, who left the program this week to take a job on the coaching staff at Oklahoma State University.
Guzzo comes to NC State as one of the most accomplished and respected coaches in the business. He holds a career won-lost record of 731-618, and has earned conference coach of the year honors six times, including the CAA in 1996, the Metro Conference in 1992, the Sun Belt Conference in 1988, and the Division III Dixie Conference in 1980, '81 and '82. He also was honored as the coach of the year in the state of Virginia in 1988, 1989 and 2000. He was NCAA Division III District Coach of the Year in 1981 and '82, and was a finalist for NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year both years. Six of Guzzo's former players have played Major League Baseball, and 41 have been drafted or have signed professional contracts.
Guzzo spent the last 10 years as head coach at Old Dominion University, where he compiled a won-lost record of 300-252, won three Colonial Athletic Association regular-season championships, two CAA Tournament championships, and took the Monarchs to three NCAA regional appearances. He was named CAA Coach of the Year in 1996.
At Old Dominion, Guzzo coached three All-Americans, three Academic All-Americans, six Freshman All-Americans, 11 ABCA All-Region players, two CAA players of the year, and two CAA rookies of the year. ODU had 24 players earn All-CAA under Guzzo, and 22 of his players were drafted in MLB's First-Year Player Draft, including first-rounder Justin Verlander, the second overall pick in 2004.
From 1983-94, Guzzo was head coach at Virginia Commonwealth, building that program almost from scratch and putting it on the college baseball map. His 329-300-1 record at VCU includes a 78-124 mark his first four years as he took over a program that had never won and built it into a consistent winner. In the 11 seasons before Guzzo became head coach, VCU never won more than 23 games in a season, never had a winning season, and failed to win as many as 10 games in a season six times.
From 1988-94, Guzzo posted a 226-154 record at VCU, won two conference championships, and took the Rams to a pair of NCAA regionals. VCU won the 1988 Sun Belt Conference championship with a 45-16 record, tied for first nationally in stolen bases, and ranked fifth nationally in earned-run average. VCU won the 1992 Metro Conference championship with a 35-22 mark, and advanced to the NCAA Central Regional finals before losing to host Texas.
Guzzo began his college head coaching career in 1979 at North Carolina Wesleyan, a Division III school in Rocky Mount, N.C., that he built into a national powerhouse in just four years. After posting an 18-19 record his first season at Wesleyan, Guzzo finished his four years there with a 102-66 record. He guided the Battling Bishops to the NCAA Division III College World Series in 1981 and 1982, and his '82 squad was ranked No. 1 in the country by Collegiate Baseball magazine.
A native of Norfolk, Va., Guzzo graduated from Norfolk Catholic High School in 1967, and earned a B.S. degree in health and physical education from East Carolina in 1971. He was a two-sport athlete at ECU, playing catcher in baseball and placekicker in football.
After serving one year as an assistant football and baseball coach at Elm City (N.C.) High School, Guzzo returned to Norfolk Catholic in 1972 and spent four years as head baseball and football coach, posting an 86-33 record in baseball and a 17-11-2 mark in football. He was named Tidewater Conference Coach of the Year in baseball in 1974, and his teams won league championships in 1973, '74 and '76.
Following his four years at Norfolk Catholic, he spent three years as a graduate assistant baseball coach at East Carolina before landing his first head coaching position at North Carolina Wesleyan.
Guzzo and his wife Kitsy have two grown children, Anthony and Gina. His daughter is a sophomore catcher on the softball team at Marshall University.