Former Northwestern State (La.) assistant coach Sean McCann joins the Tiger coaching staff for his first season in Columbia. McCann serves as Mizzou’s pitching coach and will work with a staff that returns six veterans and is complemented by eight newcomers.
McCann comes to Columbia most recently after a one-year stint as the head coach at Bossier Parish Community College. Prior to Bossier, McCann served as the top assistant to former Tiger coach John Cohen at NSU for three seasons. He also spent three seasons as an assistant at Central Missouri State from 1995-97, and was a volunteer assistant at the University of Mississippi for the 1994 season.
From 1998-2000, McCann spearheaded a Demon pitching staff that recorded the nation's fifth-best team ERA in 1998 and also won a Southland Conference Championship.
Eight pitchers signed professional baseball contracts in McCann's three years at Northwestern State, including Brandon Emanuel, who as a second-round selection in 1998 became NSU's highest draft pick ever. Another of McCann's protégés is current San Diego Padres starter Brian Lawrence, who was the 1998 Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year.
As NSU's recruiting coordinator, McCann was responsible for signing 10 eventual all-Southland performers, including two SLC Newcomers of the Year. He also lured a 21-player class in 2000 that resulted in the Demons winning back-to-back Southland Conference titles in 2001 and 2002.
During his time in Warrensburg, McCann coached six pitchers who signed professional contracts, including Josh Reynolds, who was CMSU's highest-ever draft selection when he went in the third round of the 2000 draft. He also mentored three first-team All-Americans, and seven all-conference pitchers. As recruiting coordinator, he signed five All-Americans and 13 eventual all-conference performers, leading to three straight MIAA Conference titles from 1995-97. In the first and last seasons of that stretch, the Mules finished the season among the nation's top-five Division II programs.
While at CMSU, McCann earned a master of science degree in education in 1996. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Saint Francis (Ind.) College in 1993. He has twice had articles published in Scholastic Coach magazine, and has been a presenter at the Louisiana High School Baseball Coaches Convention and the Willis-Knighton Grand Slam Baseball Clinic.
