The Madison Mallards are excited to announce Greg Labbe has been hired as the team’s field manager heading into the 2011 campaign.
Labbe led the Rochester Honkers to a NWL Championship and received Manager of the Year honors in 2006 after posting a 50-17 regular season mark and perfect 4-0 record in the playoffs.
He became the first field manager to reach the 50-win plateau in the league and Rochester’s one-season winning percentage (.746) in 2006 remains tops in the league’s 17-year history. Labbe’s 114-59 regular season record over three seasons (2005-07) in Rochester also tops the record books in terms of winning percentage (.659).
In his first year at the helm, Labbe guided the Honkers to the playoffs before exiting in the Divisional Series, losing to the Mallards. In 2006, he would enact revenge in sweeping both Madison and the Thunder Bay Border Cats to give Rochester its league-leading fourth championship.
“Our first priority in finding a field manager was someone who had prior success in the Northwoods League,” said Mallards President Vern Stenman. “You would be hard-pressed to find a manager with Greg’s experience and winning track record in this league.”
Labbe currently coaches at Eagle’s View Academy in Jacksonville, Florida, a hot-bed for baseball talent. The school has competed in the last seven 1A Final Fours, while winning three state championships. When he’s not on the field, Labbe is in the classroom at Eagle’s View teaching geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus.
Prior to his current gig, Labbe was an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of North Florida from September 2003 to May 2009. In 2005, he helped lead the Ospreys to a 48-16 record and a No. 2 national ranking in the program’s final season at the Division II level.
A two-year letterman with the Ospreys, Labbe transferred to UNF from Santa Fe Community College in 2000. As a junior, he hit .344 with 56 RBI while earning First-Team All-Peach Belt Conference and Second-Team All-Region honors. As a senior, he batted .275 and closed out his UNF baseball career with back-to-back trips to the Division II National Baseball Championship.
A native of West Palm Beach, Florida, Labbe earned his bachelor’s degree in secondary mathematics education from UNF in 2002. He received his master’s degree in educational leadership from the same school in 2005.
He and wife Heather have a three-year-old son, Luke, and a one-year-old daughter, Lily.
Labbe becomes the Mallards fifth Field Manager, behind Marc Rardin (2001-02), Drew Topham (2002), Darrell Handelsman (2003-04), and C.J. Thieleke (2005-10), as the team heads into its 11th season in the NWL.
“I’d like to thank the entire Mallards organization for the opportunity to provide fans with a hard-nosed, competitive, and exciting group of ballplayers each year who are going to compete for a championship night-in-and-night-out,” Labbe said.
“I have high expectations of myself, my staff, and my players, and given our organization’s connections to elite baseball programs around the country, coupled with the first-class resources we have internally, no expectation is unrealistic.”
Northwoods League President Dick Radatz Jr. complimented the hire.
“It will be great to have a manager of the quality of Greg Labbe back in the league. He brings a good deal of character to the position,” Radatz Jr. said.
