CARY, N.C. – USA Baseball today finalized the coaching staff for the 2022 Collegiate National Team. Xan Barksdale, Drew Bianco (LSU), Scott Brown (Vanderbilt), Cliff Godwin (ECU), and Josh Holliday (Oklahoma State) were welcomed to the staff, joining 2022 College World Series champion coach Mike Bianco (Ole Miss), who was named the team’s manager in February. Making their second appearances on the Collegiate National Team staff, Barksdale will serve as an assistant coach this summer while Godwin will serve as the third-base coach. Bianco, Brown, and Holliday will make their national team coaching debuts in 2022 and will serve as the teams’ bullpen coach, pitching coach, and assistant coach, respectively.

The Collegiate National Team Training Camp will begin on June 29 and will feature 50 of the best non-draft eligible college baseball players in the country. The athletes will compete in a five-game intrasquad series in North Carolina before the staff will name a final 26-man roster. Team USA will then travel to Haarlem, Netherlands, to compete in Honkbalweek Haarlem.

“We are excited to welcome Xan Barksdale, Drew Bianco, Scott Brown, Cliff Godwin, and Josh Holliday to our Collegiate National Team staff this summer,” said USA Baseball General Manager of National Teams Eric Campbell. “These coaches have done a tremendous job with their current programs and continue to find their athletes and teams ranking among the nation’s best year in and year out. They round out an impressive coaching staff being led by Mike Bianco and we are eager to watch them work with the best non-draft eligible college players in the country this summer.”

Rounding out the Collegiate National Team staff is press officer Cameron Harris, certified athletic trainer Josh Porter (Ole Miss), and operations coordinator Tyler Stocum (NC State), who will also assist in bullpen.

Team USA will also be joined by a host of coaches and staff members to assist during Training Camp: Spencer Allen (Milwaukee Brewers), Brady Austin (ECU), 2021 Collegiate National Team Manager Elliott Avent (NC State), Josh Fisher (NC State), Kerry Kincaid, 2019 Collegiate National Team Manager Dan McDonnell (Louisville), Josh Pike (NC State**)**, and Elton Pollock (Presbyterian).

Avent, Fisher, McDonnell, and Kincaid will serve as special assistants to the entire staff during Training Camp, meanwhile Allen and Pollock will be tasked with managing the Stars and Stripes teams, respectively. Pike will work with the Stripes team. 

Additionally, Austin will assume the roles of bullpen coaches during the Stars vs. Stripes series, meanwhile Scott Ensell (NC State) and Mark Dominick (UNCW) will join Porter during training camp as a certified athletic trainer. Brandon Golden (Golden Performance) will work with the Training Camp players as the performance coach.

The 2022 Collegiate National Team schedule is highlighted by an intrasquad Stars vs. Stripes series to be played throughout North Carolina. The series will feature a training camp roster of 50 of the premier collegiate players in the country split into two teams that will compete from June 30-July 4 in Cary, Durham, and Charlotte. Following Training Camp, Team USA will name a 26-man roster that will compete in Honkbalweek Haarlem from July 8-15 at Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem, Netherlands, where the U.S. will compete for the first time since 2014.

The first game of the Stars vs. Stripes series is set to take place at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, at 7 p.m. ET before the teams travel to compete in games two, three, and four of the series at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) in Durham, North Carolina. The first pitch of games two and four are set for 6:35 p.m. ET on July 1 and 3, respectively, and game three is scheduled for a 5:05 p.m. ET first pitch. Team USA will conclude its domestic tour on July 4 at Truist Field, the home of the Charlotte Knights, in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the first pitch at 6:05 p.m. ET.

To round out its 2022 campaign, the Collegiate National Team will compete at the Honkbalweek Haarlem tournament. The U.S. will begin the event against Japan on July 9 at 8 a.m. ET (1 p.m. local time) before taking on Italy, Cuba, the Netherlands, and Curacao to close out group stage play. The second round of competition will then be played on July 14 ahead of the championship on July 15.

2022 Collegiate National Team Staff Bios:
Mike Bianco has posted an 854-485-1 record in his 22 seasons at the helm of the Ole Miss program and has guided the Rebels to 19 postseason appearances, eight Super Regionals, two College World Series berths, and the 2022 College World Series title, the first in Rebels history. He earned both his 900th career victory and his 800th win in an Ole Miss uniform with a defeat of Texas A&M on May 8, 2021, becoming one of just 16 active head coaches to reach the 900 mark and one of just two in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) alongside Arkansas’ Dave Van Horn. During his tenure, Bianco has led the Rebels to 30 or more wins in all his 21 full seasons, including nine 40-win campaigns. The Rebels posted three straight 40-win seasons for the first time in school history from 2005-2007 and racked up another trio of seasons that surpassed the 40-win mark in 2018, 2019, and 2021.

Xan Barksdale rejoins the Collegiate National Team staff as an assistant coach in 2022 after previously serving as its bullpen coach in 2019, a role for which he earned USA Baseball’s first-ever Service Provider of the Year award. Prior to that, he was a coach for the 14U National Team Development Program (NTDP) from 2016-2018. Barksdale spent four years as an assistant coach at Eastern Tennessee State and five seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Louisville. During that time, the Cardinals won three consecutive Big East Championships (2008-2010) and advanced to the 2007 College World Series. As a player, he spent two years playing in the Atlanta Braves minor league system from 2004-2006. Barksdale is also the author of Amazon Best Seller, “Catching-101: The Complete Guide for Baseball Catchers.”

Drew Bianco will serve as the bullpen coach for the Collegiate National Team staff joining his father, Mike, to make his USA coaching debut. He recently wrapped up his fourth season at LSU and made 136 game appearances, including 65 starts. Bianco registered 10 homers, 41 RBIs, and 61 runs scored in his career, and helped the Tigers earn a NCAA Super Regional berth in 2019 and 2021.

Scott Brown assumes pitching coach duties after recently wrapping up with 10th season as pitching coach and seventh as associate head coach at Vanderbilt in 2022. In his time with the Commodores, Brown has coached 34 pitchers who have gone on to be selected in the MLB Draft, including 12 in the first three rounds. Most recently, Brown saw four of his pitchers selected in the 2021 draft, including first-round selections Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker, who in 2021 became the first pair of teammates to lead the nation in strikeouts in over 30 seasons. Over his ten years with the Commodores, Brown has helped lead the program to two national championships, four College World Series finals appearances, eight NCAA Tournaments, and six NCAA Super Regional appearances. The program reached the College World Series in consecutive seasons in 2020 and 2021 for only the second time in its storied history.

Prior to joining the Vanderbilt staff, Brown spent nine seasons as the pitching coach at St. John’s University. While a member of the Red Storm’s staff, Brown guided the program to notable progress on the mound. He coached four pitchers (Scott Barnes, Rob Delaney, Craig Hansen, and Anthony Varvaro) who went on to pitch in the Major Leagues and played a key role in the development of the Red Storm’s young pitchers. Brown also held stints as the manager of the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Sanford Mainers and as an assistant coach at his alma mater, the State University of New York at Cortland. In his playing days at Cortland, Brown went 9-1 with a 2.03 ERA in 1999 to earn second-team All-America status. He tallied 19 career wins at Cortland, which tied him for fifth-most in school history.

East Carolina Head Coach Cliff Godwin will make his second appearance on the Collegiate National Team coaching staff as the third base coach this summer. He previously served in the same role for the 2018 squad which finished 12-3 with series wins over Chinese Taipei and Japan on U.S. soil and another over Cuba in Havana. Godwin has also worked with the 2017 USA Baseball 14U National Team Development Program (NTDP). During his eight years at the helm of the program, Godwin has guided ECU to six NCAA Regional berths (2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 Greenville Regional host), four Super Regional appearances, three American Athletic Conference Regular season and three AAC Tournament crowns while posting a 304-151-1 (.668) overall record.

Twenty players have earned All-America status, while 23 were NCAA All-Regional selections, 33 were named all-conference (26 first-teamers) and 14 were drafted by Major League Baseball teams. A four-time AAC Coach-of-the-Year selection (2015, 2019, 2021, 2022), Godwin was inducted into the George Whitfield Hall of Fame in January of 2016. In addition to his time at ECU, Godwin has served at six other Division I institutions, including as an assistant coach at Ole Miss, LSU, Notre Dame, and UNCW, as well as the associate head coach at UCF and the Director of Baseball Operations at Vanderbilt.

Joining the 2022 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team as an assistant coach is Josh Holliday. In his 10th season as the head coach at Oklahoma State, Holliday has established himself as one of the nation’s top coaches as the Cowboys have celebrated three Big 12 Conference championships and have never failed to make the postseason during his tenure. Under his leadership, OSU has won 362 games, the second-highest win total among Big 12 teams during that span, has finished first or second in the conference standings six times, and reached the College World Series in 2016. Holliday has also coached 81 All-Big 12 performers, nine All-America selections, two Big 12 Pitcher of the Year honorees, two Big 12 Newcomer of the Year winners, and a Big 12 Player of the Year.

The first former OSU player to serve as the program’s head coach, Holliday was a four-year letter winner for the Cowboys from 1996-1999, starting on Cowboy teams that made four NCAA Tournament appearances and reached the College World Series in 1996 and 1999. He was inducted into the OSU Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. Following his collegiate career, Holliday was selected in the ninth round of the 1999 MLB Draft by Toronto and spent two years in the Blue Jays organization before returning to Stillwater to join the OSU coaching staff, where he served as an assistant for three seasons. He was a student assistant in 2001 before joining the full-time staff the following year. Holliday left Stillwater to continue his coaching career in 2004, and over 11 years, he served as an assistant coach at some of the nation’s top baseball programs, serving stints on the staffs at North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, and Vanderbilt. He coached seven NCAA Tournament teams with three of those squads advancing to the College World Series (Georgia Tech in 2006, Arizona State in 2009, and Vanderbilt in 2011).

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