American Baseball Coaches Association

History

The organization was founded as the American Association of College Baseball Coaches. Presidents have come from NCAA Divisions I, II & III, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, junior college, and high school. The association was behind the start of the creation of the College World Series, which now is conducted by the NCAA.

Membership

As of 2016, the association has over 8,300 members with members hailing from nearly 25 different countries, and includes coaches from all ranks of amateur baseball. The membership year for the ABCA runs from September 1 through August 31.

National Convention

The ABCA hosts the world's largest baseball convention every January. The convention features coaching clinics, trade show, meetings, several awards presentations, cand honors. Over 5,600 coaches attend the convention, which lasts for four days.

The convention is on a rotating schedule with the 2017 convention scheduled for Anaheim, California, 2018 in Indianapolis, Indiana and the 2019 convention in Dallas, Texas.

A major draw are the nearly 30 clinic speakers each year. These include some of the most knowledgeable baseball coaches and minds in the world and are on-hand to share their experiences and expertise with fellow coaches. Attendees receive each clinic video for free at the end of the convention on ABCAvideos.org.

At the ABCA Trade Show, over 330 companies fill up over 130,000 square feet of exhibit space and are on hand to display state-of-the-art equipment and products, including coaching aids, apparel, field equipment, pitching machines and software. Many products are displayed for the first time and some items are even raffled off as prizes.

Hall of Fame

Induction to the ABCA Hall of Fame is the highest honor bestowed by the ABCA organization. The ABCA Hall of Fame was established in 1966 with the inaugural 18–member class. Each year's Hall of Fame class is inducted during the Hall of Fame/Coach of the Year Banquet at the annual ABCA Convention in January.

Awards

All-America Teams

The ABCA has selected All-American Teams in each division of the ABCA, as well as an All-American/Coach of the Year Committee, as well as All-Region Teams. Each division also selects a National Player of the Year, as well as All-Region Coaches of the Year and National Coaches of the Year. Each year, over 1,700 All-Region Players and 336 All-American Players are selected.

Lefty Gomez Award

The ABCA/Wilson Lefty Gomez Award has been presented since 1962. The award goes to an individual who has distinguished himself amongst his peers and has contributed significantly to the game of baseball locally, nationally and internationally. This award is sponsored by Wilson Sporting Goods.

Honor Award

Meritorious Service Award

Ethics in Coaching Award

ABCA/Diamond Coaches of the Year

ABCA/Rawlings Players of the Year

ABCA/Rawlings All-Americans

ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Awards

ABCA/Rawlings All-Region

ABCA/Turface Athletics Field Maintenance Awards

The ABCA and Turface Athletics present the ABCA/Turface Athletics Field Maintenance Award each year to a college and a high school.

Instructional videos

The ABCA launched the revamped ABCAvideos.org in 2016, which sells videos-on-demand (VOD) of detailed training, and instruction from past clinic speakers. The ABCAvideos.org library features over 200 videos that range from 45 minutes to 1 hour in length dating back to the 2008 ABCA Convention. Topics of discussion include player development and positional play as well as coaching development. All coaches that attend the annual ABCA Convention receive that year's set of clinic videos free of charge and current ABCA members receive 30% off all ABCAvideos.org purchases.