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Wake Forest Extends Contract for Baseball Head Coach Tom Walter

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Wake Forest Extends Contract for Baseball Head Coach Tom Walter - Wake Forest University Athletics

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest and 2023 ACC Baseball Coach of the Year Tom Walter have agreed to a long-term contract extension, Director of Athleti...
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"I would like to thank our Board of Trustees, President Susan R. Wente, Ph.D. and AD John Currie for the confidence they have in our program and the belief they have in me personally," said Walter. "The number of people who have stepped forward to make this a reality is humbling.

"To work alongside Bill Cilento, Corey Muscara, Matt Wessinger and the rest of our staff is a privilege and an honor that I do not take for granted. Most importantly, we have the absolute best student-athletes in the world here at Wake Forest and they make my job the absolute best in the world."

"Tom Walter has built a sustainable winning culture for the storied Demon Deacons baseball program and strives each day to provide a World Class Student-Athlete Experience for his players," director of athletics John Currie said. "The historic season we all just witnessed from our Diamond Deacs gave the college baseball world a look into the team-first culture Coach Walter has built over the last 14 seasons as our head baseball coach. With record ticket sales and attendance at the Couch this spring, along with the over six million viewers of our games at the Men's College World Series this summer, Coach Walter's program has brought significant Value to Wake Forest, Winston-Salem & Triad Communities. This long-term extension is an example of Wake Forest's commitment to supporting the success of our student-athletes in the classroom, community and on the field."

"Coach Walter is a one of a kind human that cares about his players and program more than anyone you will meet," said two-time ACC Pitcher of the Year and unanimous All-American Rhett Lowder. "It makes me proud to be a Deac knowing that Coach Walter will continue to lead a great coaching staff and team."

"This is such an amazing opportunity for the best guy out there," said Wake Forest home run record holder and All-American Brock Wilken. "There is no one I would've wanted to spend the last three years of this amazing college journey playing behind. Coach welcomed each one of us with open arms, mind and heart. One of the greatest coaches I've ever been around and even better human, and that says a lot. He surrounded us with a great staff to develop, build a culture and have a shot at bringing a title back home for the Deacs. I can't thank him enough for everything he's done for me and us as a collective group. He's not done yet and there's still work to do! Love you coach! Brothers forever."
 
Good for him - the “Danny Manning extension” after one amazing (or ok-ish in DM’s case) year always makes me a little uneasy but i guess they had to lock the staff up.
 
Henry Chinaski said:
Good for him - the “Danny Manning extension” after one amazing (or ok-ish in DM’s case) year always makes me a little uneasy but i guess they had to lock the staff up.
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Yeah. But at least this team has the pitching lab and some good returning players and transfers to back up this extension.
 
PhDeac said:
Yeah. But at least this team has the pitching lab and some good returning players and transfers to back up this extension.
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And a trip to the First Four is not the same as a CWS appearance. Walter has also been here quite a while compared to Danny.
 
Right. But that works against Walter in terms of making him a long term commitment. But he has the infrastructure to back it up.
 
Lol comparing Danny Manning’s extension year to this year in baseball is comical.

In 2016/17 WFU basketball went 19-14 (0.575) overall and 9-9 (0.500) in the ACC in route to finishing 10th in the ACC and losing in the First Four of the NCAAT. That team was at no point ranked in the top 25.

In 2023 WFU baseball went 54-12 (0.818) overall and 22-7 (0.759) in the ACC in route to winning the ACC regular season. That team spent ~1/3 of the season ranked #1 in the country and was one run away from the CWS finals.

Even trying to draw a similarly between the situations is ludicrous, and that’s before you get to the fact that Walter had real schools trying to hire him pre-extension, which Manning certainly did not.
 
Wellman might have been the only AD in the country that would've extended Danny after 2017 season, and he's certainly the only AD that would've extended him under the ridiculously generous terms that WF agreed upon. Danny had no leverage. There were no other offers for him to leave, but WF still gave a sweetheart deal. Also, WF wasn't even close to be a top 30 team in 2017. WF went 19-14 (9-9) finishing 10th in the ACC.

OTOH, every AD in the country would have extended Walter after this past season. WF was #1 for the last two months of the season. WF finished first in the ACC regular season; set school records for ACC wins and overall wins. Won their regional, their super-regional, and was one run away from playing in the NCAA Championship series. Miami who has won the third most national championships came hard after Walter.

Comparing 2017 Danny Manning to 2023 Tom Walter is about as dumb as it gets.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
I was very on the fence after last season, but the team showed up and shut me the hell up.

Comparing this to Manning is absolutely comical.
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As was I. I think this is a true case of infrastructure being necessary to compete. Let’s not forget that Walter was coaching at our on-campus “stadium” for the first part of his tenure. I have fond memories of that place but it was basically a D-3 level facility.
 
It's not that dumb a comparison but naturally we have to eat our own around here. Last season was extraordinary and merits the extension but Walter was persona non grata on here for years and the program underperformed relative to expectations more than once during his tenure. He seems like a first class guy and glad we locked him up but let's cut some slack to those whose mileage may vary.
 
Some short memories here. People were losing their minds about baserunning blunders, poor defense, bunting (oh, wait...), etc. the past couple of years. Good for him, the staff, and team for putting together a great roster and making it to the final 4 in CWS. He deserved a raise for sure as does Muscara. Did the article say how long the extension is? I didn't see it.
 
Yeah, I was def Walter wait-and-see heading into this year, I think a lot of folks were for the reasons stated above.

It's more the comparison to Manning -- who had only had one even close to acceptable year. If this had come totally out of nowhere it'd be one thing -- though a CWS appearance still may have warranted it, I dunno. We are also talking different planets compensation-wise.

Losing that pitching coach at a sub-optimal time, plus the Covid years also adds a little perspective for me on Walter, too. 4 out the last 8 in the tourney starts to look better, imo.
 
deacdixieboy said:
As was I. I think this is a true case of infrastructure being necessary to compete. Let’s not forget that Walter was coaching at our on-campus “stadium” for the first part of his tenure. I have fond memories of that place but it was basically a D-3 level facility.
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I assume Hatch did not help either, particularly with a program that relies on being able to fund players w/non athletic scholarships?

Definitely was skeptical myself with some of the repeated patterns we'd seen over the years (lots of errors, underperforming vs expectations), but this year definitely shut me up too.
 
inspectah said:
It's not that dumb a comparison but naturally we have to eat our own around here. Last season was extraordinary and merits the extension but Walter was persona non grata on here for years and the program underperformed relative to expectations more than once during his tenure. He seems like a first class guy and glad we locked him up but let's cut some slack to those whose mileage may vary.
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Danny Manning could coach college basketball for 1,000 seasons, and he would never take a team to #1 in the country or the Final 4 or to an ACC regular season title or to a school record for wins... we can go on and on.

Agree that lots of people were on the fence about Walter in recent years (or even over the fence and ready to can him), but that was because he had teams that were ranked early in the season, and then disappointed as the season went on. Even so, under Walter, WF baseball made the NCAAT four of the last six years there were tournaments. At a minimum, WF baseball was competitive under Walter. The problem was WF baseball wasn't great, until this past season.

The critique of the Manning/Walter comparison isn't so much a praise of Tom Walter, but a mis-assessment of how bad Danny Manning was. In six seasons at WF, he was 50 games under .500 in the ACC. His best finish was 10th in 15 team conference. As impossible as it might seem, Manning drove WF even deeper into the abyss after the previous nightmare coach. WF basketball still hasn't fully recovered from the damage DM did to WF basketball.
 
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