HEAD COACH KEITH SHUMATE

After taking over as N.C. A&T baseball head coach in September before the 1997 baseball season, Keith Shumate knew he had the toughest challenge of his life ahead of him. Inheriting a 4-45 team wasn't the hard part. With most of the scholarship players he inherited still having two years left of eligibility, Shumate decided to help them along with their degrees and bring respectability to Aggie baseball. Known as a communicator and motivator that knows all parts of the game equally well, Shumate's strengths are probably as a teacher of the game and an evaluator of talent. The plan included one stern prediction in 1997: "The 2000 team will be the first one that can win".  

Coach Shumate guided the four-win team he inherited to eight wins in 1997 and 15 wins in 1998. For the 1999 team he used all his freed scholarship money to bring in 10 freshmen pitchers. They took their lumps in 1999 with an 11-45 record. Shumate reminded his team in the early going that no other team in the country would rely on 15 freshmen as its main core. He told them it would pay off in 2000. Still the Aggies battled to a third place finish in the MEAC tournament in the 1999 season as they had done in 1998. Also, the patient Shumate saw his second and third players drafted and signed in Major League Baseball Draft. The San Francisco Giants selected right handed pitcher Harold Featherstone in the 15th round and the Anaheim Angels selected shortstop Garry Templeton in the 48th round. 

In 2000, Shumate proved his bold prediction to be true. The Aggies broke a team record with 21 victories, surpassing the 1992 record of 19. Pitcher Travis Scott led the MEAC in strikeouts and was named the Pitcher of the Year. Jason Battle was named First-Team All-MEAC.

The 2001 team followed suit, as they won 19 games and finished fourth in the MEAC Tournament. Centerfielder Jason Battle was named the MEAC Player of the Year, while shortstop Adonis Smith and leftfielder Austin Love were named to the All-MEAC First and Second Teams, respectively. Battle returned to help lead the team to 18 victories in 2002, as he was named first team All-MEAC for the third time, while Smith was named to the second team.  Following the season, Shumate saw his third player, left-handed relief pitcher David Nelson, drafted in the 52nd round by the Kansas City Royals. Also, left-handed pitcher Joseph Locklear signed a free agent contract with the Cincinnati Reds.

Last season, Shumate guided an injury-plagued team to a record of 13-36-1 and a third place finish in the MEAC Tournament. Utility infielder Quincy Jones was named First Team All-MEAC, while first baseman Patrick Battle and outfielder Jeffrey King were named to the second team.

No stranger to Greensboro, Shumate came to A&T from Grimsley High School where he revamped the baseball program, winning two conference championships in three years. Shumate had head coached two teams to the 17 and 18 year old Palomino World Series and was an assistant on the team that won the 1995 Palomino World Series.

Shumate, a utility infielder in college, was a four-year letter winner at Western Carolina University, and was twice selected to the Southern Conference All-Academic Team. He graduated in 1988, earning a B.S. in communications. He shares a home in Greensboro with his wife, Kathy, and two children.