Nicholls State announced Thursday that it has promoted associate head coach Seth Thibodeaux to head coach, replacing Chip Durham, who left to take a job in the private sector last month. Thibodeaux has spent the last three years as the Colonels' recruiting coordinator under Durham.

“Seth has helped recruit every single player on our baseball team and has played a major role in nearly every aspect of the program," athletics director Rob Bernardi said in a release. "His familiarity with the team and the program was a big factor in choosing him as our head coach. We expect that Colonel baseball will continue to advance under his leadership."

Thibodeaux takes over a program that he has helped to steadily improve over the last four years. In 2010, the Colonels made their first postseason appearance in 10 years and earned their first postseason win in 12 years—a 13-2 upset of No. 1 seed Texas State in the opening round of the Southland Conference tournament. The Colonels finished the season 27-29 (15-18 in the Southland)—their first 20-win season since 2005 and first 10-win conference season since 2002. The Colonels finished just three wins shy of their first 30-win season since 1993.

“When I first got here, Chip and I sat down and put together a plan,” Thibodeaux said. “We were going to focus on improving our recruiting, our academics, and our facilities. We really stuck to those goals, and we’re finally at a point now where we have a really good program. We have the bulk of our position players returning, we had a really good recruiting class for the third season in a row, and we’re very excited about the product we’re going to put on the field next year. With the improvements we’ve made academically, athletically and with our facilities, everything is happening at a good time for this program. We’re all very fortunate for that.”

Before coming to Nicholls in 2008, Thibodeaux served two years as an
assistant coach at Southeastern Louisiana. He started his coaching career in 2003 at Pearl River (Miss.) CC, where he spent three years. Thibodeaux played two seasons at Louisiana State-Eunice in 2000-01 before transferring to William Carey College in Hattiesburg, Miss., where he finished his college playing career.