KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has announced Adrian Dinkel of Southeastern (Fla.) as the 2022 Rawlings-NAIA Coach of the Year after guiding the Fire to the National Championship earlier this month.

The Fire, who held the top ranking in all regular season polls, backed it up by winning their second Red Banner since 2018 – a year in which Dinkel was also selected as the Coach of the Year. This season, Southeastern eclipsed both previous best starts to a year which were a 21-0 beginning of the 2018 campaign and 26-1 in 2020. The Fire also tied the highest number of wins in program history which was also set in 2018 with a 59-7 record.

The NAIA National Coach of the Year is voted on by the NAIA-Baseball Coaches Association (BCA) Executive Committee and NAIA-BCA Past Presidents. To be eligible, a head coach must be selected as their conference or unaffiliated group coach of the year or lead their team to the Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series.