Freshman All-Americans
	Final Top 25 Poll
	Freshman All-America Team

John Manuel

June 19, 2001

Coach of the Year Winners 1981--Ron Fraser, Miami 1982--Gene Stephenson, Wichita State 1983--Barry Shollenberger, Alabama 1984--Augie Garrido, Cal State Fullerton 1985--Ron Polk, Mississippi State 1986--Skip Bertman, Louisiana State Dave Snow, Loyola Marymount 1987--Mark Marquess, Stanford 1988--Jim Brock, Arizona State 1989--Dave Snow, Long Beach State 1990--Steve Webber, Georgia 1991--Jim Hendry, Creighton 1992--Andy Lopez, Pepperdine 1993--Gene Stephenson, Wichita State 1994--Jim Morris, Miami 1995--Rod Delmonico, Tennessee 1996--Skip Bertman, Louisiana State 1997--Jim Wells, Alabama 1998--Pat Murphy, Arizona State 1999--Wayne Graham, Rice 2000--Ray Tanner, South Carolina 2001--Dave Van Horn, Nebraska

DURHAM, N.C.--Nebraska's Dave Van Horn became the first coach from a Big 12 Conference school to win Baseball America's Coach of the Year award.

Van Horn, 40, led the Huskers to their first-ever trip to the College World Series. In just his fourth season, Van Horn has turned Nebraska from a Midwest also-ran into a national power. The Huskers have won three straight Big 12 tournament championships, won their first regular-season crown since 1950 and finished the season ranked sixth at 50-16. They also achieved their first-ever No. 1 ranking, occupying the top spot for two weeks during the season.

Van Horn, 40, came to Nebraska in January 1998, a month after the departure of John Sanders. Van Horn immediately instilled a new attitude in Lincoln, an ambitious plan to emulate Wichita State and become a Midwest power.

"When I came here, they just didn't think they could win, and I didn't think there was enough discipline for them to win," he said. "We had to change that, and we had to get better players."

Previously, Van Horn coached at Northwestern (La.) State, where he won two Southland Conference regular-season titles. Van Horn also won a Division II national championship in one season at Central Missouri State after stints as an assistant at his alma mater, Arkansas, and a five-season stay as head coach at Texarkana Community College.

Van Horn's turnaround helped lead Nebraska to join with the city of Lincoln and a new professional team, the Lincoln Saltdogs of the independent Northern League, to build a new ballpark. The $32 million Haymarket Park opened in June 2001 with a seating capacity of 4,500.

The last coach of a Midwestern school to win the Coach of the Year award was Wichita State's Gene Stephenson in 1993. Van Horn is the second coach from the state of Nebraska to win the award, joining Creighton's Jim Hendry (now the Chicago Cubs' assistant general manager), who won it in 1991.