| | BRITT BONNEAU
Head Coach
Simply put, Britt Bonneau is a winner.
In nine years at the helm of the ACU baseball program, he has taken the Wildcats from a middle-of- the- road program to a program that each year expects to contend for an NCAA Division II national title.
Before Bonneau joined the ACU baseball program, the Wildcats had won one conference championship and had never made an NCAA post-season appearance in more than 30 years of baseball.
Since his arrival as an assistant coach in 1996, ACU has had one of the most successful baseball programs in all of NCAA Division II. Bonneau- who became the Wildcats’ head coach at the age of 26 in 1997- has led ACU to unparalleled heights in nine seasons as head coach.
ACU has quickly become the kingpin of Lone Star Conference baseball, capturing five of the last six LSC South Division titles (2000,02,04,05) and three LSC Post-Season Tournament titles (2000-02).
The Wildcats were invited to five NCAA Division II South Central region tournaments (2000-2005), and the 2003 team won the regional championship for the first time in school history, enabling ACU to make its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II College World Series.
All of the Wildcats’ success has helped make Bonneau the winningest coach in school history with a record of 363 –167 -1. His 361 wins include 329 in the last eight years, a number that makes ACU the sixth-winningest baseball program in NCAA Division II during that span.
To those who have followed his career, it should come as no surprise that Bonneau has turned ACU into a big winner.
In more than 16 years as a player, assistant coach and head coach at the college level, Bonneau has gone to one NCAA division I College World Series, one NCAA Division II College World Series, one NAIA College World Series and seven NCAA regional tournaments.
As a standout centerfielder at Lubbock Christian (1989-91), he helped lead LCU to the 1991 NAIA World Series and was named Rawlings Region IV Player of the Year and a first team all-American player. He led the nation in hits (111), runs scored (109), RBI (98) and was third in home runs (19).
In 1992 he played right field for the Oklahoma Sooners and helped lead them to the Big Eight regular season championship, a NCAA South Central region championship and a fifth-place finish at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Bonneau was named to the Big Eight All-Tournament team and was a member of the American Airlines/National Baseball Congress all-American team.
Following his collegiate career, Bonneau went on to a brief professional career with the Chicago Cubs’ organization and in the Texas-Louisiana League with the Tyler Wildcatters and the Lubbock Crickets, whom he helped lead to a league crown.
He began his coaching career as an assistant at the University of Texas-San Antonio in 1993 before moving to LCU in 1994 and then ACU in 1996 with his former college coach, Jimmy Shankle, who served as the head coach for the 1996 season only.
While at ACU, Bonneau has been named LSC Coach of the Year four times (2000,02,05), Louisville Slugger LSC South Division Coach of the Year six times (1998, 2000-02, 2004, 2005), and American Baseball Coaches’ Association (ABCA), NCAA Division II South Central Region Coach of the Year in 2003. He currently serves as chairman of the NCAA II Baseball Committee. He is a member of the ABCA and the California Community Colleges Baseball Coaches’ Association (CCCBCA).
Bonneau, 35, received his B.S. in kinesiology in 1994 from LCU. He and his wife, Cari, have been married 11 years and have four daughters, Jaci (10), Mati (8), Scotlyn (6) and Landry (4).
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