As he left his post as a University of Delaware assistant to become West Chester University’s head baseball coach 16 years ago, Greg Mamula dared to dream.
His 5-year stint on coach Jim Sherman’s staff had been such a good experience, and he’d been so impressed with the pride and personal connections associated with UD baseball, Mamula permitted himself a moment to imagine.
“It was always a thought in my head that, man, it’d be neat to go back there and be the head baseball coach,” Mamula said.
“I go back to what coach [Bob] Hannah built and established here. As soon as you get in this program, certainly at that time, you could feel the passion from the alumni, the success they had had, what they had put into it to build that success, the consistency they had in winning . . . It was special in that way. The history, the tradition.”
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As Mamula (pronounced MAM-you-luh) uttered those words Wednesday afternoon, he was strolling toward Hannah Stadium, Delaware baseball’s home field, having been named the Blue Hens’ head coach 2½ weeks before. On the outfield wall, Delaware’s 1970 College World Series berth is heralded, along with its 30 conference titles and 18 NCAA appearances.
He’ll become just the fourth man to occupy that post in 68 seasons next spring, following Tubby Raymond, better know as the Blue Hens’ College Football Hall of Fame coach but who also led UD baseball to success from 1956-64; American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee Hannah (1965-2000); and Sherman (2001-22), who announced in January he’d retire this spring.
“Delaware baseball is surely in good hands,” Sherman said when Mamula’s hiring was announced.
Mamula, a former St. Bonaventure second baseman, returns to Delaware after seven years on the staff at Florida Atlantic, where he was recruiting coordinator, hitting coach, infield coach and third base coach and was elevated to associate head coach before the 2022 season.
He arrives back at a Delaware with significantly upgraded facilities from when he left, including the Whitney Athletic Center and a Hannah Stadium now with lights and artificial turf. Those will be valuable tools in Mamula’s efforts to improve Delaware’s roster and make winning more commonplace.
“When you walk in there, it’s overwhelming how nice, how big-time it is,” he said of the WAC, which houses weight-training, athletic training, academic advisement and other support services for athletes.
Delaware reached its fourth straight NCAA Tournament in 2001, its final season in America East, while tying the school record with 45 wins. In 2002, Delaware moved to the more competitive Colonial Athletic Association, where it has won just one league tournament title and reached one NCAA Tournament, in 2017, since. Delaware also shared one regular-season CAA title (2007).
5 best college players coached by Greg Mamula
(Listed alphabetically)
Reid Gorecki — Gorecki batted .414 as a UD senior in 2002 and was a 13th-round Cardinals draft pick who reached the big leagues in 2009 with Atlanta.
Ian Happ — The Chicago Cubs’ 2015 first-round pick out of Cincinnati, Happ has cemented his spot as a starter in his sixth season with the Cubs.
B.J. Murray — A corner infielder from Florida Atlantic, Murray is in his second season in the Chicago Cubs’ chain and was recently promoted to high-A South Bend after batting .305 at Low-A Myrtle Beach.
Nolan Schanuel — The Florida Atlantic first baseman has batted .357 with 27 homers and 112 RBI in two college seasons and will be a high draft pick in 2023.
Joey Wendle — The former Avon Grove High and West Chester infielder has a career .274 average playing with the Marlins in his seventh big-league season and made the 2021 American League All-Star team with Tampa Bay.
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But the Blue Hens haven’t even qualified for the last three CAA tournaments in 2019, 2021 and 2022 (none was held in 2020 when the season ended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
“Fortunately now, with the transfer portal and the number of grad transfers because of the COVID year,” Mamula said, “you can immediately grab experienced, talented transfers to upgrade the program. It’s not like in years past where you had to commit high school kids and develop them.
“So the plan is and the direction is, ‘Let’s be really good in 2023,’ so the players here can have that experience of being part of a really successful program that’s hopefully competing for a CAA championship and NCAA Regional berth and use that momentum to grab really good recruits and gain momentum in the player development world. That’s how you build a strong, sustainable program.”
Florida Atlantic made three NCAA Regionals and won two Conference USA regular-season titles while Mamula was there and was often among the league’s more productive offensive teams.
After beginning his coaching career at Shippensburg, Mamula was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Delaware from 2002-2006. That 5-year span was highlighted by the Blue Hens reaching the championship game of the 2004 CAA Tournament before falling to UNC-Wilmington.
He was then hired as head coach at Division II West Chester, where his teams went 124-45, reached three NCAA Regional title games and qualified for the 2009 Division II World Series from 2007-09. Mamula then moved back to Division I baseball as an assistant from 2010-15 at the University of Cincinnati.
Delaware has long had a baseball reputation as an offensive juggernaut, and Sherman was a former Blue Hen slugger himself. Mamula said many of his offensive philosophies were honed during his time on the UD staff.
“Anybody that plays in a hitter-friendly ballpark, whether it’s college or professional, the philosophy’s gonna be pretty much the same,” he said. “It’s gonna be high on-base, high slugging equals high scoring. This park allows for high slugging. We can coach and recruit high on-base. You combine those two things and hopefully that leads to a lot of offense here.’’
Mamula is in the process of hiring a pitching coach and agrees that improving Delaware’s mound crew is of utmost importance. Delaware hasn’t finished in the CAA’s top six in team ERA since being first in its 2017 championship season.
“With transfers we’re adding right now the majority of them are gonna be experienced pitchers,” he said. “We want to win in 2023 so we gotta get more arms.”
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