Bill Walkenbach took a young team to new heights in 2012 by guiding it to the program's first Ivy League title since the circuit added baseball in 1993 and its first league title since the Big Red won the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League in 1977. After five seasons at the helm, Walkenbach has led the squad to a 117-128-1 record, including a 60-60 mark in Ivy League play, and back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1982.
The 2012 season was filled with dramatic victories, marked by a perfect 5-0 mark in extra-inning affairs. It was an extraordinary turnaround in just a year's time after the Big Red posted a 10-30 record in 2011, then rebounded for a program record 31 victories in 2012. The team's 14-6 record in Ivy League play was also a program high in either the Ivy League or EIBL.
Not surprisingly, Cornell mopped up with 11 All-Ivy selections, including a pair of first-team pitchers in Connor Kaufmann '14 and Kellen Urbon '15. Urbon was a unanimous selection as a first-team relief pitcher and was also named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year — the first time a Cornellian has taken the award since Walkenbach did it himself in 1995. The Big Red posted another winning season in 2013, going 23-17 overall and 11-9 in Ivy League play to finish tied for second in the Lou Gehrig Division.
A former player and assistant coach who was inducted into the Cornell athletics Hall of Fame in 2010, Walkenbach made an immediate impact in his first season directing the program. He guided the Big Red to the Gehrig Division title and won the divisional tiebreaker against Princeton to advance to the Ivy League Championship Series. He finished his first season at the helm of the Big Red with a 17-23 overall record and a 10-10 mark in Ivy League play.
His second season saw the Big Red in contention for a repeat divisional title late in the season before ultimately closing out the year with an 18-20 overall record and a 9-11 league mark. The overall record marked the best season for the Big Red since going 18-18-1 in 1998. Additionally, the year saw David Rochefort '10 and Mickey Brodsky '11 both being named to the All-Ivy League First Team.
Walkenbach, who became the 15th head coach in Cornell baseball history and the second to carry the title of Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball, was named to the position on August 14, 2008. In his first season at Cornell, he had several players earn Ivy League honors, placing Nathan Ford '09 and David Rochefort '10 on the All-Ivy First Team. Another pair — Scott Hardinger '09 and Brian Billigen '13 — earned second-team accolades, while Mickey Brodsky '11 was named honorable mention.
After his eighth season as a head baseball coach, Walkenbach holds a 186-170-1 coaching record, including three seasons as head coach at Division III Franklin & Marshall. He led the Diplomats to a 69-42 overall record and a dominating 43-11 mark in league play, guiding the team to a pair of Centennial Conference regular season championships. Under his direction, F&M had 19 players earn all-conference honors, and finished the 2006 season ranked 13th in the nation and second in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
While at Franklin & Marshall, he led the team to its third-highest win total in school history, going 29-11 in 2006. The team also picked up just its third victory in NCAA tournament play in program history that season when it defeated Gwynedd-Mercy in the Mid-Atlantic Regional.
Before being named the head coach at Franklin & Marshall, Walkenbach served as an assistant under Tom Ford at Cornell from 2003 until 2005, serving as the infield coach, hitting and baserunning instructor and first-base coach. While he was on the coaching staff in 2005, the Big Red captured its first-ever Gehrig Division championship.
Prior to his coaching stint at Cornell, Walkenbach was an assistant coach at Emory University in Atlanta during the 2002 and 2003 seasons while working on his master’s degree in sports administration at Georgia State. He helped Emory reach the 2003 Division III College World Series and a then-school-best No. 5 ranking in the final national poll.
Walkenbach also served as an assistant coach in the Cape Cod League during the summer of 2003 with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. In 2002, he was the infield coach and hitting instructor for the St. Cloud RiverBats of the NorthWoods League, helping guide that wood-bat summer-league team to the playoffs.
Walkenbach was a standout player during his collegiate career at Cornell, being voted the team’s Most Valuable Player in 1995, 1996 and 1997, joining Erik Rico as the only players in program history to earn the award three times. Despite graduating 14 years ago, he still ranks in the top five in 10 offensive categories and in the top 10 in 13 categories. He is tied for the school lead in home runs (21) and is second in runs batted in (120) and at-bats (544). Walkenbach also ranks third in games played (158), runs scored (134) and stolen bases (47). He was a four-time All-Ivy League selection, earning first-team honors at shortstop in 1995 and 1996 and garnering second-team accolades at short in 1997 and 1998.
A native of Claremont, Calif., Walkenbach is a 1998 graduate of the School of Hotel Administration. His wife, Beth, is a former Cornell field hockey standout and a graduate of Cornell University, and the couple has two daughters, Julia and Charlotte.
