It's hard not to be impressed by WVU baseball head coach Steve Sabins.
Sabins took over the West Virginia Mountaineers last season after the retirement of long-time coach Randy Mazey, who Sabins had served as an assistant under. In his first season at the helm, he led West Virginia baseball to a Big 12 Championship, the most wins in program history, and a second consecutive Super Regional appearance.
But he wasn't done yet. In his sophomore season in charge of the program, despite parting ways with preseason All-American Chase Meyer early in the year, he once again broke the program single-season win record as he led the Mountaineers to their first-ever College World Series appearance. And before the action got started in Omaha on Friday, he was honored with the NCBWA Mike Martin National Coach of the Year Award.
The Mike Martin National Coach of the Year!@stevesabins 👏 pic.twitter.com/BwVllEAlNG
— WVU Baseball (@WVUBaseball) June 12, 2026
Steve Sabins named Coach of the Year
It's hard to argue that Sabins deserves this honor as much as any coach in the country.
He fought adversity every step of the way this season, and in just his second year as a head coach. The drama surrounding Chase Meyer's departure from the team was loud and messy. Kicking a preseason All-American off your team is far from an easy decision, and it also comes with plenty of scrutiny from a passionate fan base such as West Virginia's.
And that was before an April slump that saw the Mountaineers drop a game to one of the worst team's in the conference before suffering a 20+ run loss to their archrival at home. And that was followed up dropping a Big 12 series to Cincinnati. For awhile, it looked like the Mountaineer might not even make it back to another Super Regional.
But in spite of all that – and once again, and this is important, during just his second season on the job – Sabins managed to shut out the noise and lock in on success. And he delivered, shattering the already high standard he set for himself in his first year leading the program.
The funniest part? Sabins was not named Big 12 Coach of the Year, which went to Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald instead. At the time, many felt as if Sabins had gotten snubbed for the award. Now? That argument carries even more weight with Sabins being named National Coach of the Year. But if you asked Sabins which accolade he'd rather have, it's not hard to guess which he'd choose.
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