Division II veteran Rick O’Dette, who has amassed over 500 wins and led his teams to NCAA Regional play four times during his career, was named Saint Leo's new head baseball coach on June 15, 2017, ushering in a new era for Saint Leo baseball.
O’Dette made an immediate impact on the Saint Leo baseball program taking a team that had achieved just 23 wins in 2017 and amassing 38 victories in his first season at the helm. The Lions finished the year with an impressive 38-11 mark including taking two of three from Florida Southern on the road who was ranked No. 1 in the NCAA at the time.
Under O’Dette’s guidance, junior utility player Peyton Isaacson led the NCAA in saves with 14 in just 21 appearances on the mound. The junior tied the Saint Leo program record for saves in a season while also filling the role of starting catcher and first baseman throughout the season.
CAREER- 23 Seasons
6 Seasons at Saint Leo
145-105 / .58%
2022-23 record - 30-20
O’Dette led the Lions to a top-25 ranking in 2019 as Saint Leo began the season ranked 23rd in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll. The skipper led a pair of Lions to postseason All-Conference honors as Derek Gibree earned First Team All-Sunshine State Conference accolades while McCabe Sargent captured Second Team All-SSC honors. Three Lion seniors signed professional contracts following the 2019 campaign.
The 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic with over half the contests left to play. The Lions won their final four games heading into the stoppage.
Fast forward to 2022, and O'Dette led the Lions to a historic season. Saint Leo finished the season with a 36-17 record, going 20-10 in the Sunshine State Conference. For the seventh time in school history, the Lions went to the NCAA South Regional Tournament, the first trip for the Green and Gold since 2001, and the first time under Coach O'Dette. Saint Leo secured the second seed in the South Region, earning the right to host the second bracket of the South Region. It was the first time in school history the Lions hosted the South Regional.
Despite finishing third in the tournament, O'Dette made the region and country aware of Saint Leo. When it came to postseason awards, they came left and right for the Lions. O'Dette was awarded the Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year and NCBWA South Region Coach of the Year. He was the second Saint Leo head coach to earn SSC Coach of the Year and broke a 24-year drought for the program.
O’Dette came to Saint Leo from Saint Joseph’s College of Indiana, where he led the Pumas for 17 seasons and amassed a 494-407-4 overall record. He began his first season in the Sunshine State Conference ranked fourth among active SSC head coaches in total wins behind Tampa’s Joe Urso (744), Rollins’ Jon Sjogren (680), and Barry’s Juan Ranero (542).
In his final campaign at Saint Joseph’s College, O’Dette guided the Pumas to a 35-22 record and the program’s fourth berth in the NCAA Midwest Regional – a coaching performance made more remarkable by the fact his team was playing with the knowledge that the school would be suspending operations at the end of the 2016-17 academic year. He was recognized as the Great Lakes Valley Conference’s 2017 Coach of the Year, the second time in his career O’Dette had earned the award.
O’Dette’s 17-year ledger at Saint Joseph’s included 56 All-GLVC selections, 25 All-Region honorees, and four Division II All-Americans. Under O’Dette’s tutelage, three Saint Joseph’s players earned GLVC Pitcher of the Year honors, and his 2013 pitching staff led all of Division II with a 2.88 earned run average.
Twenty-nine of O’Dette’s players have gone on to play professional baseball, including 10 who were drafted or signed as free agents by Major League Baseball teams.
Most importantly, every baseball student-athlete that exhausted their eligibility during O’Dette’s 17 seasons at Saint Joseph’s College earned their degree. A total of 84 players earned GLVC Academic All-Conference honors during O’Dette’s time at the helm of Puma baseball, and his final squad finished the academic year with a 3.38 team grade point average.
A 1999 graduate of Saint Joseph’s College, O’Dette was a three-year baseball letterwinner and a pitcher on the Pumas’ 1996 NCAA Division II national runner-up squad. He finished his career with a 15-3 record on the mound, earning All-North Central Region honors in 1996 and getting tabbed as an All-GLVC selection in 1997. O’Dette was a 15th round pick of the Boston Red Sox in the 1997 MLB First-Year Player Draft, and played at four different levels within the Red Sox organization.
In recognition of his coaching and playing achievements, O’Dette was a 2012 inductee into the Saint Joseph’s College Sports Hall of Fame.
Prior to his return to SJC O'Dette worked as a professional instructor for Championship Sports Academy in Tinley Park, as well as the Chicago White Sox Training Center. He also spent two summers as the head coach for the Upper Deck Cougars Baseball Organization out of Palos, Ill. The Cougars finished in fourth place at the World Championships both years.
O'Dette spent the 1999-2000 academic year as the pitching coach for Andrean High School in Merrillville, Ind.
