July 30, 2013
ABCA’s Dave Keilitz Announces Retirement
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Dave Keilitz has announced that he will step down as Executive Director of the American Baseball Coaches Association in June of 2014.
He has served with distinction in that capacity for the last 20 years. Prior to that, he was the Athletics Director at Central Michigan University for 10 years, leading the Chippewas to 26 Mid-American Conference championships, a span in which every coach was named MAC Coach of The Year at least once.
He also was the head baseball coach at Central Michigan for 14 years and never had a losing season, compiling an impressive 456-203 record. He coached eight All-Americans, and 51 of his players signed pro contracts with seven eventually making it to the major leagues. He was involved with the baseball program for 20 years and was a graduate assistant and coach of the freshman baseball team for five years as he established an 84-26 record.
Keilitz was Central Michigan’s first All-American baseball player and established 19 game, season and career records for the Chippewas.
During Keilitz’s time as Executive Director of the ABCA, the association’s membership and number attending the annual convention have grown significantly.
In addition, he had his hand in important NCAA legislative accomplishments for baseball over the years as ABCA Executive Director including NCAA Division I bracket expansion, change of season, bat standards, academic performance, as well as recruiting and practice schedules, just to name a few. He helped stop attempts to reduce the number of games in NCAA Division I on several occasions and other potentially damaging NCAA legislation.
He is a member of the ABCA Hall of Fame, Midland County Sports Hall of Fame, Central Michigan Athletics Hall of Fame, NAIA Hall of Fame and MAC Hall of Fame.
A in-depth look at what Keilitz has meant to baseball coaches on all levels of baseball will be in the Sept. 6 issue of Collegiate Baseball newspaper.
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