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Basile named head coach at Fredonia State

Fredonia State announced that it has removed the interim tag from Jordan Basile and he will be the program’s new head baseball coach. Submitted Photo

FREDONIA, N.Y. — Jordan Basile served as Fredonia State University’s interim baseball coach this past season.

Now, the 2009 graduate can remove the interim tag.

On Friday, Blue Devils Athletic Director Jerry Fisk named Basile the program’s new head baseball coach.

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world,” Basile said Saturday afternoon. “It’s something that has been in the back of my mind hoping that would be the case, but you don’t know until you have it.”

The school held a nationwide search for its next head coach. Multiple candidates interviewed with a search committee and Fisk.

“I’m so thankful for the opportunity to coach at Fredonia State and be back at my alma mater,” Basile said.

The 2005 Jamestown High School graduate became Fredonia State’s all-time hits leader in 2009 and was later voted into the university’s Hall of Fame. He was named SUNYAC All-Conference and All-Region multiple times as a player.

“It was the best experience of my life for four years. I didn’t know what I wanted to do other than play college baseball. I wouldn’t change the opportunity to go to Fredonia,” Basile said. “We have good facilities and good people around us, good support in athletics and the administration. I can confidently tell a player this was the best four years of my life, it’s not a sales pitch.”

Prior to being named the Blue Devils’ interim coach in January, Basile was the head coach at Jamestown Community College for 2 1/2 years.

Fredonia State finished 10-24 this past spring, including 1-17 in SUNYAC play. The Blue Devils’ last winning season came in 2018 when they were 17-13. They haven’t finished at .500 or better in conference play since going 9-9 in 2016.

This spring, Oswego finished first in the regular season with a 16-2 conference record while Cortland was 15-3 and Brockport was 13-5. Cortland won the conference tournament.

“Instead of comparing ourselves to Brockport, Cortland and Oswego, we just understand that we can do this too. … Fredonia becomes a destination,” Basile said. “Those coaches have done a great job, but now it’s our time. We want to talk about Fredonia, not the other guys.”

Basile brings with him 12 years of experience at many levels. He assisted one season at Fredonia State after graduating. He moved on to NCAA Division I University at Buffalo as an assistant. He earned his master’s degree in coaching at NCAA Division II Lake Erie College before heading to NJCAA Division II Patrick Henry Community College — first as an assistant coach, then taking over the program for two seasons. In his first year as a head coach at PHCC he found his team one game away from the NJCAA Division World Series with a 38-16-1 record, and compiled a two-season mark of 64-32-1.

“It’s definitely different going to a four-year program, but we ran into a unique situation this year losing 16 seniors and bringing in 16 players in four months,” Basile said. “With my JUCO experience, I was used to recruiting 20 new guys a year. As a JUCO coach, you try to send guys to four-year programs. Hopefully, Fredonia becomes a destination for local JUCO players.”

Basile has coached more than 10 players who were selected in the MLB draft and of those, two who have reached the Major Leagues. He was already recruiting for this coming season despite not knowing if he would be the full-time coach. Now he can tell prospective players that he will be.

“You always want to start in our area and our state, but we have a great neighborhood program at Fredonia for Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia student-athletes who can also pay in-state tuition,” Basile said. “We an also get two more guys from the rest of the country who can pay in-state tuition.”

Basile worked with player development in the Detroit Tigers organization in 2011, and is involved with the Secrets of Champions as an integrated performance coach. He also managed the Jamestown Tarp Skunks of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League the past two summers.

Basile takes over for his former coach, Matt Palisin after 19 years at the helm. Basile was part of the school’s most successful season in 2009 when they went 26-12 and played host to the ECAC Regional Tournament, while he also won the SUNYAC batting title.

“I still call him coach because he’s one of the biggest mentors in my life. I couldn’t have asked for a better coach and person to be under in my baseball career,” Basile said of Palisin. “To be able to take over for him is the best feeling in the world. My job is to do as good of a job as he did making better players and better people.”

NCAA Division III programs can practice 16 times in the fall and play one game.

“We have a full roster,” Basile said, “and we’re ready to go.”

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