Frank Pait, the first head baseball coach at Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) and a former head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne University, has been hired as the first head baseball coach at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute (CCC&TI). The Cobras are adding baseball and softball and will begin playing in the fall of 2019./CCC&TI PHOTO
THE PAIT FILE
High school: Wilkes Central.
College: Wingate.
Playing career: First-team All-American as a senior at Wingate (.400, 17 home runs, 52 RBI in 1985), Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CAIA) Player of the Year. Team won three CIAC and NAIA District 26 regular-season titles and two CIAC tournament titles.
College coaching career: Assistant at Wingate for three seasons (1994-96); head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne University (1997-2007, 291-239 with one South Atlantic Conference regular-season title, two conference tournament titles; SAC Coach of the Year in 2001); head coach at CVCC (2009-2014, 188-78).
HobbsDailyReport.com
HUDSON – Frank Pait, who started the baseball program at Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC), has been picked to play a similar role as Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute (CCC&TI) starts its program.
CCC&TI announced Pait will be its first head coach in baseball and start work on Feb. 1.
In addition to previously being CVCC’s head coach, he was head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne University. He’s a native of Wilkesboro, and was a star player first at Wilkes Central High and then at Wingate University.
Pait coached five CVCC teams to a record of 188-78, starting in 2010, and left in 2015 to take a counseling job at Hickory High. His coaching record in high school, college and at the community college level is 479-217-1.
“To come in and put your thumbprint on something that is happening for the first time is as exciting and challenging as it gets,” Pait said in a press release from CCC&TI’s athletic department. “We want to create something that everyone in the community can be proud of.”
CCC&TI’s Board of Trustees approved in November the addition of baseball and softball to the college’s athletics. Both teams are scheduled to begin play in the fall of 2019, and they’ll compete in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).
CCC&TI officials said conversations are underway to determine which division the Cobras will compete in.
For the baseball program, finding a coach with the right experience and connections to local baseball was important.
“We have hit an absolute home run with Frank,” CCC&TI Athletic Director Matt Anderson said in the press release. “His reputation and track record speaks for itself. He is a proven winner and knows how to build a program.”
Anderson said the goal is to compete on a national level, and hiring Pait is a good first step.
“He’s been through this exact process before,” Anderson said. “Not only did he build a program from scratch, he had them in the national tournament in the third year of the program.
“I truly believe we’re going to build something special here, and I am so excited for our student athletes, our college and our community.”
Pait was a graduate assistant at LRU after playing at Wingate. He then coached baseball at West Wilkes High and was an assistant coach at Wingate before returning to LRU as head coach.
Hired to start the CVCC baseball program, Pait had the Red Hawks in the NJCAA World Series by the third year in Hickory and that team finished fifth. He left CVCC in 2015.
Pait said he will begin recruiting immediately and will focus on local players first and expand outward in the region and beyond.
“We’re not scared to recruit out of state, but we want local guys,” he said. “If they can play, we want them here.”
Pait said fans can expect fundamentally sound teams that will be well prepared and will play aggressive baseball. It all starts, he said, with recruiting the right players and creating the right atmosphere.
“We’re going to bring in good guys and we’re going to try to make them better people,” he said. “We’re going to bring in good students and make them better students.
“We’re going to bring in good players and try to make them great players. If we do those things, the winning and success will take care of itself.”