Sabato: Matt Clingersmith has taken SUNY Niagara from detour to destination
· Yahoo Sports
There’s a narrative about junior colleges and SUNY Niagara is no different. It’s a place athletes go to leave.
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For many, it’s a pit stop. A place for athletes who need a little more time to develop physically or academically. For others, it’s a second chance at a missed opportunity elsewhere. Regardless of why they’re there, everyone is looking for the same thing: a scholarship to a four-year school.
Over the last 20 years, Matt Clingersmith has worked to change that thinking at SUNY Niagara. As a Niagara Falls kid who used the JUCO route at Erie Community College to earn a Division I scholarship at Canisius, Clingersmith had a vision of where he wanted to take SUNY Niagara upon accepting the job in 2006.
Clingersmith thought getting to the NJCAA Division III World Series was an attainable goal, but he never considered winning a national championship. Well, the Thunderwolves got to the World Series in his third season and were national runners-up in his sixth year.
Over 100 players moved to four-year schools, 10 World Series berths, eight MLB draft picks and three national runners-up finishes later, Clingersmith had changed the narrative.
SUNY Niagara is no longer a detour, it’s a baseball destination.
Still, Clingersmith was starting to wonder if a national championship was in the cards, especially after entering last year’s World Series 49-0 and finishing fourth. Even after he accomplished it, the reality was just starting to settle in his brain a few hours after the final out.
SUNY Niagara won its first national championship Wednesday with a 12-8 win over RCSJ-Gloucester, an opponent seeking its fourth consecutive World Series title.
“I’ve missed every birthday to recruit,” said Clingersmith, who has 754 career wins. “I’ve missed every Fourth of July to go to tournaments. And now, seeing the success and sharing it with my family — my mom and my dad and my two daughters, my wife, and then these guys that all believed in me — it was all worth it.”
With the win should come new opportunities for a coach who helped create expectations for a program that wouldn’t have thought were possible 20 years ago. Frankly, it’s surprising a Division I — and especially a Division II — school hasn’t lured Clingersmith, who has gone from being a part-time to a full-time school employee over the years, away to work his magic there.
It’s their loss and SUNY Niagara’s (massive) gain. It’s hard to imagine a better fit for the job. Clingersmith helped establish a youth program — the Niagara Junior Thunderwolves — that also offers offseason training for pitchers and catchers. That’s where Clingersmith, a former pitcher, thrives, as five of his eight draft picks have been pitchers.
But Clingersmith’s network extends beyond Niagara County. He’s a relentless recruiter who’s willing to look down any avenue for a player that fits his program.
Ryan Birchard, a 2023 fifth-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers, is from Auburn. Former draft picks Sean Jamieson and Christian Young are Canadian, as was Wednesday’s championship-game starting and winning pitcher Keegan Bazinet.
“I had 264 texts,” Clingersmith said. “A lot of travel coaches, a lot of high school coaches. All those relationships we built in this area. It’s awesome and I appreciate those coaches — the local coaches — for sending us players and believing in our program. Some of their kids are national champs now and they deserve it.”
Clingersmith has also gotten players who spurned Division I offers in hopes of using non-scholarship SUNY Niagara to get better ones, something pitcher Matt Barr did last year by getting selected in the fifth round by the Minnesota Twins.
Catcher Dalton Harper, a kickback from Division I Georgia Southern who is heading to Penn State, stayed for his sophomore season and became the program’s all-time leader in hits, RBIs, home runs, doubles and triples.
So did Cooper Rossano, a Williamsville East graduate who went to the University of Albany for one season before transferring to SUNY Niagara. As Rossano, who is heading to Lenoir-Rhyne, a Division II school in North Carolina, watched his first-inning two-run home run sail over the fence, he wished he could get another two seasons in Sanborn.
“I think he’s the best coach I’ve ever had in my life,” Rossano said. “I think he’s got me to a great spot with Lenoir-Rhyne and everyone else, he’s done a great job for them. He fights for us and he fights for the team. He treats us like his own kids.”
In an age where name, image and likeness and the transfer portal dominate college sports, Clingersmith’s players are as consumed with winning as he is. Since NIL was officially created by the NCAA in July 2021, SUNY Niagara has gone 247-37, an average of 49.4 wins per season.
“He wants to win so bad. I think that kind of affects and rubs off on everyone,” Rossano said. “I think that gets in everyone’s heads. My record here is (106-8) and I think that’s pretty damn good.”
With a national championship in his back pocket, Clingersmith's attempts to continue raising the bar will be a must-watch.