Baseball Coaching Staff
Nick Black '02 enters his fifth season as the Quakers' head baseball coach. In his first season In 2007, Guilford finished with a 12-24 record and was honored with three all-conference selections. Black became the 17th coach in the 116-year history of Guilford's baseball program August 2005. He took over after serving as a Quakers' assistant coach for three seasons, during which
time the team went 71-50 and made two trips to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament. A 2002 Guilford graduate, Black lettered four years as the team’s catcher. He started three of four years behind the plate, but missed his junior season with a broken wrist, during which time he called pitches from the dugout. He captained the team as a senior and graduated with a .313 batting average and 56 runs batted in in 103 games. Black caught a no-hitter in 2000 and earned Academic All-ODAC honors in 2002. He earned his Guilford degree in exercise and sport studies with a concentration in sport administration.
Born in Little Rock, AR, and raised in Charlotte, NC, Black played baseball for Providence High School and helped the Panthers to two conference titles and a state finals berth.
The Guilford job is Black's first head-coaching position. He assisted the Matthews (NC) American Legion baseball squad in 1999 and the Kernersville (NC) Junior American Legion team this summer. Black served as the assistant strength coach at Furman for seven months after his graduation from Guilford.
Black and his wife, Heather '03, a former Guilford soccer player, reside in Greensboro.
Black's squad will include 28 returning letter winners, including the three of the five 2009 team's top hitters and the top three pitchers. Last season's team went 19-19-1 and finished in seventh place in the ODAC, which leads Black to a career coaching record of 72-83-1. He has coached seven All-ODAC players and one All-American in his time at Guilford.
Assistant Coach Michael Ellsworth
Michael Ellsworth enters his first season as an assistant coach at Guilford College. Prior to joining the Quakers’ staff Ellsworth coached the past three seasons with the New Bern American Legion (Post 24) team as the junior varsity assistant coach (2005), juinor varisty head coach (2006) and varsity assistant coach (2007). He helped lead New Bern to playoff beths in each of his three seasons coaching.
During the summer of 2008, Ellsworth was the assistant coach for the Thomasville Hi-Toms in the Coastal Plains League. The team won the regular season title in the West division and the Petitt Cup Championship. The Hi-Toms led the league in home runs, RBIs, total bases, fielding percentage, double plays and strikeouts. In addition, Baseball America named four Hi-Toms among its top-10 CPL Major League propects and Perfect Game Magazine named the organization the nation's seventh-best summer college team.
Ellsworth began his baseball career at North Carolina Wesleyan College in 2003, where he received the Scholar-Athlete Award for the Baseball Team. Ellsworth transferred to Methodist University to finish out career as a student-athlete, graduating in 2007. A three-time Academic All-USA South Conference while at Methodist, Ellsworth helped the Monarchs to three-straight regular-season conference championships as a designated hitter. Ellsworth finished with a career .341 batting average and earned both USA South Athletic Conference All-Tournament and NCAA Regional All-Tournament team honors in 2007 as the designated hitter.
Ellsworth graduated high school in 2002 from New Bern High School (N.C.) were he lettered four years in baseball. A four-time academic all-conference and two-time all-conference selection, Ellsworth was also the most valuable defensive player his senior year. The son of Mark and Gayle Ellsworth, Michael's older brother Matthew is the assistant baseball coach at Barton College in Wilson, N.C.