(Wausau, WI) – The Wisconsin Woodchucks have announced their head coach for the 2012 season. Erik Supplee, coach at Lynchburg College in Virginia, will assume the roll as Field Manager for the upcoming season. Supplee was an assistant coach with the Woodchucks in 2011.
Supplee is currently in his second year at Lynchburg College, serving as the team’s pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. Besides Lynchburg, Supplee has served as an assistant coach at Millersville University and Longwood University, while also spending two summers coaching the Covington Lumberjacks of the Valley Baseball League and the Lehigh Valley Catz of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League, where, under his coaching, the Valley Catz compiled a league low 2.78 ERA and held opponents to a league low .223 batting average.
Supplee played four seasons at Division 1 Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., while playing summer ball for the Luray Wranglers and the Woodstock River Bandits. He finished his senior season at Marist in 2007 with a 5-3 record, and a team-leading 3.35 ERA in 86.0 innings pitched. In addition to coaching, Supple is enrolled in Lynchburg’s M.Ed. Program in Elementary Education Curriculum and Instruction.
Supplee has recently recruited and signed a talented pair of freshmen to play for the Woodchucks this summer. Branden Cogswell and Nate Irving will be joining the Woodchucks after they complete their freshman year at the University of Virginia Caveliers.
Cogswell and Irving will look to be the anchors of a team that not only has the 8th ranked recruiting class in the country according to Baseball America, but is also coming off a season where they earned a number one seed in the College World Series, where they lost to the eventual National Champions, South Carolina Gamecocks. Cogswell, a 44th round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays, will play infield for the Cavaliers this spring. Originally from Ballston Lake, N.Y., Cogswell was a decorated high school player. He batted an even .500 with 10 home runs his senior year, a season where he was named to his third New York State Sportswriters Association All-Star Team and was named conference player of the year. Cogswell’s teammate, freshman catcher Nate Irving, celebrated a similarly successful high school career. Originally from Yonkers, N.Y., Irving was a Gatorade State Player of the year finalist. He batted .520, with 3 home runs, 15 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. Nate was also the recipient of the Frank Bertino Award for Honorable Leadership, Character and Work Ethic.
