Aug. 9, 2005

Champaign, Ill. - Former Illinois baseball coach Richard "Itch" Jones was named the Mideast Region Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association/Diamond Sports Company recently. Jones retired on June 13 after leading the Illini to the 2005 Big Ten championship.

"It's a great honor for Itch, something well-deserved," said Illinois coach Dan Hartleb, who took over for Jones upon his retirement. "It's not easy to win the conference at any time, and he did an outstanding job of taking us from ninth place to first place in one year. He's deserving of the honor and it's a great award and accomplishment for him as he leaves college baseball."

Jones was honored following Illinois' title season in which the squad led the league wire-to-wire. It is Jones' second award from ABCA/Diamond, as he won the same award in 1990. He is also a member of the ABCA Hall of Fame and was named the Adirondack National Coach of the Year in 1971 and The Sporting News Coach of the Year in 1978.

"It's an honor to receive any recognition like this from your colleagues," Jones said. "Awards like that only go to teams that have had success, and our players and my coaching staff were all responsible for that."

Jones finished his career with a 1,240-752-6 (.621) record, the 13th winningest coach in NCAA history. He also ended his career with the eighth-most wins of any active coaches in college baseball.