Baseball

Aaron Swick, a 15-year NCAA Div. III head coach who achieved great success at Willamette University (Oregon), has served as The College of Wooster's head baseball coach since August 21, 2023.

Swick's Willamette program, which competes in a region that has produced five national champions and one national runner-up since 2013, has been among the most consistent west coast teams in that timespan. Eleven straight Bearcat teams achieved a .500 or better record under Swick's guidance, headlined by his 2018 squad advancing to the regional championship round following a Northwest Conference Tournament championship. Success in the national tournament, plus tying the program record with 31 wins, resulted in D3baseball.com West Region Coach of the Year laurels.

Three Bearcats earned All-American honors during Swick's tenure, and 21 were voted all-region. At the conference level, Willamette's all-time winner at 316 games coached the 2015 and 2019 NWC Player of the Year, two of the last three NWC Rookie of the Year selections, and 86 all-conference honorees. Numerous team successes occurred under Swick's watch, including team and individual national statistics champions, top-10 national rankings in offensive and pitching categories, and team records in every facet of the game.

High-performing academics and a national roster makeup are two hallmarks of Swick-coached teams. Willamette's team GPA was 3.0 or higher every season of Swick's tenure, three College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® plaques were earned by Bearcat players, and nine earned CSC Academic All-District® honors. Fifteen states were represented on Willamette's roster, and Swick brought in an average of 9.5 players per season.

A strong advocate for the student-athlete experience, Swick spearheaded over 20 facility enhancement projects at John Lewis Field at Roy S. "Spec" Keene Stadium. In 2020, the team clubhouse was overhauled with new custom lockers, walls, flooring, storage, restrooms, and audio and visual equipment. A year prior, artificial turf was installed on the mound, home plate, baselines, and bullpen mounds. Other significant facility enhancements included installing new cages in a covered hitting facility, creating a strength and conditioning room, and upgrading the scoreboard.

Outside of coaching, Swick taught within the Exercise and Health Science Department, was the athletics liaison with admissions, served on the hall of fame committee, was a game administrator for fall and winter sports, and served on the regional advisory committee.

Swick served as Willamette's pitching coach, recruiting coordinator, and strength and conditioning coach for the 2006 and 2007 seasons prior to accepting a role at NCAA Div. I South Dakota State University as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. In 18 years of coaching college or summer baseball, Swick has worked with 32 players who advanced to professional baseball.

While in college, Swick was a pitcher at Saddleback College and the University of California-Berkeley. At Saddleback, he was named all-conference, and he sported a 1.86 earned run average as a senior at Cal. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Cal in 2005 and a master's in sports pedagogy from South Dakota State in 2009.