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Jim Brady | Baseball Head Coach
P: 314-516-5647
E: bradyja@umsl.edu
Jim Brady is entering his 25th season as head coach at UMSL and going into the 2009-10 year, he looks to continue the success the program has had throughout his coaching tenure.
Brady has a career record of 650-465-5, the most wins for any head coach in any sport in UMSL Athletics. Entering the 2008 season, he was ranked 16th among NCAA Division II active coaches for the most career wins (618) and was 32nd among Division II active coaches in career winning percentage (.605). He also ranks 40th all-time in career victories.
Brady recorded win number 650 with an 8-7 victory over Drury in the 2009 season finale.
During the 2007 season, Brady recorded his 600th career win with a victory over Saint Rose (NY), becoming the 47th coach in NCAA Division II history to reach that milestone.
Early in the 2003 season, he recorded career victory number 500 with an 11-4 victory over the University of Central Missouri and was the 29th active Division II coach to record 500 wins. His longevity and stability in the program has been a key ingredient to the success the UMSL program has shown under the tutelage of Brady.
UMSL has had a winning season for all but five years that Brady has been the head coach. The teams have had 30 or more wins 11 times in the last 16 years, including a school-record of 39-15 record in 2003. In that historic 2003 season, Brady led UMSL to a first-place regular season finish in the GLVC and also won the GLVC Tournament, recording UMSL’s first ever conference title since joining the GLVC. UMSL also earned a bid and a first-place seed to the NCAA Regionals, their first trip to the Regionals since the 1998 season.
The 1998 team finished with a 32-15 record and a bid to the NCAA Regionals. In 1996, Brady guided the team to a then school record 37-9 record, a first-place conference regular season finish, an NCAA Regional title and a berth in the Division II College World Series. In addition, Brady also led UMSL to back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances in 1992 and 1993. In 1993, Brady led the team to its first appearance in the Division II College World Series since the 1977 season, and it’s first during his tenure.
Thus far in his career at UMSL, Brady has coached 13 All-American players, 54 all-regional players and 86 all-conference players in either the MIAA or the GLVC. He has also coached five players who earned All-Conference and All-Region Player or Pitcher of the Year, and one Conference Freshman of the Year. Brady has been awarded with the Central Region Coach of the Year Award twice, in 1993 and again in 1996.
He was inducted into the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.
In addition to his coaching duties at UM-St. Louis, Brady has served as an assistant coach at the U.S. Olympic National Baseball trials in 1992, and was honored by the Multiple Sclerosis Society for excellence in coaching in 1994.
Prior to being named the head coach, he assumed the pitching coach duties at UM-St. Louis in 1984 under former head coach Jim Dix. That year, Brady guided UMSL to a league-leading ERA as a team.
Before arriving at UMSL, Brady served as a teacher and assistant baseball and football coach at Parkway South High School for five years. He has also served as an assistant coach at Missouri State and helped guide the Bears to back-to-back post-season appearances in 1977 and 1978.
Brady played collegiate baseball at nearby Meramec Community College, and later went on to play at Division I Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo. Brady has two sons, Kyle (22) and Tyler (21). His grandfather, the late William C. Brady, is a member of the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame.
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James Smith | Baseball Assistant Coach
P: 314-516-5752
E: smithjamesm@umsl.edu
James Smith is in his first season as an assistant baseball coach at UMSL.
He previously served as pitching and assistant coach at Harris-Stowe State University.
Smith also spent 10 years at the high school level as both a varsity head and assistant coach at his alma mater Columbia (Mo.) Hickman. While there, he coached two players which were taken in the top 10 rounds of the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft – marking the first time in school history any player had been taken in the MLB draft. Smith also had the opportunity to learn from Hall of Fame coach Kent Fewell, who amassed more than 500 high school career victories and had just one losing season in 29 years.
Smith was a starting outfielder and pitcher on the 1990 Missouri Class 4A state championship team before taking his talents to the collegiate level. He was the closer on the 1994 University of Central Missouri team which won the NCAA Division II championship and was a pitcher on the 1995 Oklahoma State University team which won the Big Eight Championship.
Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an emphasis in physical education and health and a Master of Science degree in education from Missouri Baptist University with an emphasis in Sports Management.
He currently works as a USA baseball evaluator for the Midwest Region in the summer months.
Smith and his wife Angie reside in Fenton, Mo., with their son, Jackson, and daughter, Olivia.
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