Kansas City, Mo. – The American Baseball Coaches’ Association awarded two of its members its highest annual honors last week as Tennessee Wesleyan’s Billy Berry took home the NAIA Coach of the Year Award while the Robert ‘Ish’ Smith Award was given to long time Cumberland (Tenn.) head coach Woody Hunt.

Hunt, a 41-year veteran of the dugout at Cumberland has three national titles to his credit, the latest of which came in 2014 as he led his team from a three-seed in the Kingsport Bracket all the way to a national title. Heading into 2020, the long-time skipper has amassed 1,599 career wins and was at the helm for 12 appearances in the NAIA World Series.

The Robert E. Smith Achievement Award is given annually to a coach or administrator who has given oneself in an unselfish manner to the promotion of NAIA Baseball. Woody Hunt is the 20th winner of the award, which was first established in 1999 by the NAIA Baseball Coaches Association.

Also recognized was Tennessee Wesleyan head coach Billy Berry as the ABCA/Diamond National Coach of the Year and the NAIA Baseball Coaches Association National Coach of the year.

Berry led his Tennessee Wesleyan squad to its second NAIA National Championship, the first since 2012. Berry was also honored with the Coach of the Year award after that title run.

The Bulldogs finished the 2019 year with a 56-10 overall record and were ranked in the top 10 in the nation in 17 statistical categories including total hits (719), total runs scored (561) and slugging percentage (.546).

Berry guided his team to an Appalachian Athletic Conference best, 21-6 record, which stood to earn the Bulldogs a conference regular season title prior to going 4-1 in the AAC tournament to earn the title. After a 1-0 loss to Webber International (Fla.), Berry’s Bulldogs lost just one more game on the way to snagging the red banner.