VMI assistant baseball coach James Conrad has been named the head coach of the Covington (Va.) Lumberjacks of the Valley Baseball League for the upcoming season.
Conrad is in his first season with the Keydets, where he coaches first base and works primarily with the outfielders. A 2007 graduate of Lafayette, Conrad was a three-time All-Patriot League player for the Leopards and was named the conference’s Scholar Athlete of the Year as a senior. In 2007, Conrad ranked third in the nation with 49 stolen bases and led the Leopards to a League Championship and a berth in the Charlottesville Regional, where the center fielder was named to the All-Regional Team.
A Columbia, Md. native, Conrad played for the Traverse City (Mich.) Beach Bums of the Frontier League after his playing days at Lafayette. He worked as an assistant coach with his alma mater, Atholton High School, in 2008, while also teaching the game at the Baseball Factory. In the past, he has served an internship with Baseball Info Solutions, a statistical company run by Bill James.
The Lumberjacks are coming off an exciting run to the 2008 Jim Lineweaver Championship Series. After finishing the regular season as the sixth seed in the eight-team playoffs, Covington upset third-seeded Fauquier and top-seeded Waynesboro to reach the finals, where they fell to second-seeded Luray.
The Valley League, named for its location in the Shenandoah Valley, began play in 1923 and has been sanctioned as an NCAA summer league since 1961. The league’s 12 teams are situated in western Virginia and play a 44-game schedule that begins in early June.
– News Release
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