Jeff Kinne is in his 21st year as the Head Baseball Coach at Hampden-Sydney College during 2023-24. He was named the new head coach at H-SC on June 11, 2003. Coach Kinne is the winningest coach in program history (401-353-6), also the College's all-time winningest coach with 401 career wins. He led the Tigers to the 2005 NCAA Division III World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin, the program's only appearance in the Division III Championship Series, finishing a school-record 27-15 that also included Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament and NCAA South Regional Championships. A three-time ODAC Coach of the Year (2005, 2007, 2010) and the 2005 American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Division III South Region Coach of the Year, Kinne has developed the Tiger baseball program into a consistent contender. Jeff also serves as a strength and conditioning coach for the athletic department.
Kinne has attained 13 overall winning seasons during his 20-year tenure as head coach, and 17 seasons at .500 or better in the ODAC (206-163-1). H-SC completed its 2023 season with a final overall record of 20-19, including 13-9 in the ODAC to finish fifth among 12 teams, and advanced to the ODAC Tournament for the 18th time under Kinne. It was the second consecutive 20-win season as the Tigers won six of their first seven games, enjoyed a five-game winning streak just past the midway point of the season, and swept their final conference home doubleheader to give Kinne the milestone 400 career collegiate coaching wins—a 13-2 home win past Averett in game two on April 23 (2023) for #400. H-SC finished 2022 with a final overall record of 20-19, including 10-10 in the ODAC for seventh place among 11 schools—the most wins for the program since 2017 (21). The Tigers won 11 of 12 games during a mid-season push, including eight-straight to begin the push. H-SC completed 2021 with a final record of 18-14 overall, including 12-10 in the ODAC for fifth place among 12 schools. The Tigers were off to their best start in six years during 2020 at 12-4 overall, including 2-0 in the ODAC, before the COVID-19 pandemic ... winning nine of the last 10 games played.
Through 20 seasons, Kinne has enjoyed great success while coaching two All-Americans, 16 All-Region and 18 First Team All-ODAC selections. He became the College's all-time winningest coach on April 25, 2021 with a 4-0 road win in game two of a doubleheader sweep at Bridgewater. Kinne became the first coach in program history to win 300 games on February 28, 2018 with a 7-4 home win past Marymount. He had become the program's all-time winningest coach on March 20, 2014, surpassing the legendary J. Stokeley Fulton (225) with a 14-13 home win past Frostburg State (Md.).
Kinne brought nearly 10 years of coaching experience to the position at H-SC, having worked as an assistant coach at Mary Washington College, Washington and Lee University, Division I schools Virginia Military Institute and Charleston Southern University, as well as the head coach for one year at New Hampshire Technical Institute. As the pitching coach at Mary Washington, the Eagles' staff led the Capital Athletic Conference in ERA, batting average against and strikeouts per nine innings, while the team ERA ranked 12th-best nationally.
As the head coach at New Hampshire Tech, Kinne led the junior college program to a conference regular season championship in 1995 as the team went from worst to first in one season. After his stint in New Hampshire, he worked for two years at Charleston Southern as a hitting and defensive coach, while also serving as an assistant sports information director and an assistant in the CSU athletics ticket office.
From 1998 through 2001, Kinne worked in Lexington, spending two seasons at VMI and another season at Washington and Lee. While at VMI, he served as the team's pitching coach, while also overseeing the office budget, team travel budget and recruiting budget. Kinne also served as a primary recruiter at both VMI and W&L, while the two schools experienced unprecedented success. During his tenure at VMI, the Keydets set a school record for wins in 1999, while W&L established a new school mark in 2001.
Kinne is a native of Salisbury, New Hampshire and is a 1994 graduate of Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island. Jeff and his wife Jennifer have two sons, Mattison and Mason. Mattison attends and plays collegiate baseball at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, beginning in 2021-22, and Mason began attending H-SC beginning in 2022-23.
Â
