Sherman Reed, the 2022 MEAC Tournament Most Outstanding Coach and winningest skipper in school-history, enters his 15season as the head coach of the Coppin State baseball program in 2025after previously spending two seasons as an assistant.
Over the last seven years, the Eagles enjoyed unprecedented success by recording three 20-plus win seasons, an NCAA Regional appearance, a MEAC Tournament Title and a MEAC regular season championship. In the six full seasons during that stretch, with the 2020 campaign being cut short due to COVID-19, Coppin went 57-46 in MEAC games.
In his 14 seasons with the Eagles, 31 players went on to earn All-MEAC honors, including a pair of MEAC Rookie of the Year honorees, the program’s first-ever MEAC Pitcher of the Year, All-American and All-Region performers, and a MEAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Numerous players have gone on to sign professional contracts, including Jahmon Taylor (’19) and Marcos Castillo (’22).
The 2022 was the finest in program-history as the Eagles matched a school-record with 24 wins and won its first MEAC Championship since 1995. Reed took home his first MEAC Tournament Most Outstanding Coach honor, and the reward for the conference title was the school’s first-ever trip to the NCAA Regional in Greenville, N.C.
With a league-high nine players on the 2022 All-MEAC First Team, along with Jordan Hamberg (Pitcher of the Year) and Josh Hankins (Rookie of the Year) earning major awards, Coppin received the #2 seed in the MEAC Tournament. Coming from behind to defeat Maryland Eastern Shore in the opening game, the Eagles routed Delaware State, 15-5 to advance to the Championship Game. After falling to the Hornets, which forced an if-necessary game, the Eagles rallied for eight runs in the ninth inning to beat DSU, 18-12.
What might have made the 2022 season more impressive was Coppin’s turnaround from the year prior. Featuring one of the youngest rosters in the Nation in 2021 with 20 combined freshman and CoVID freshman, the Eagles won just ten games with a pair of victories over Mount St. Mary’s and another at Navy. CSU still placed numerous players on All-MEAC squads, led by freshmen Mike Dorcean, Sebastien Sarabia, Darren Hagan and Jordan Hamberg.
CoVID-19 cut the 2020 campaign short after just 13 games on March 12. Despite the early cancellation of the season, Coppin pulled off victories over Richmond, Georgetown and Lehigh. The 6-5 win over Georgetown was Reed's first against the Hoyas and snapped a 13-game losing streak to their rival from the Nation's Capital which dated back to 2008. The following day, Coppin held on for a 5-4 victory at Lehigh, its first over the Mountain Hawks since 2010.
During his first three seasons at the helm, Reed worked tirelessly on the recruiting trail to help turn the Coppin State baseball program around. The 2012 edition of the Eagles featured 20 freshmen and sophomores laying the foundation for success in the coming years. The fruits of his labor really paid off in the 2018 season when the Eagles won their first MEAC Northern Division Title since 1996 with an 18-4 record in conference play, shattering the old single season wins record by five games. Finishing with a school-record 21 victories, Coppin earned the top overall seed in the MEAC Tournament and earned a win over Florida A&M before falling in an extra-inning affair in the Semifinals.
The 2018 season also showed dividends for several individuals with the Navy & Gold. Derek Lohr and Nazier McIlwain both earned First Team All-Conference honors with Lohr being named a Freshman All-American. Four others (Erik Crossman, Caleb Duhay, Allen Saar and Jahmon Taylor) earned Second Team recognition as the six All-Conference selections was also a program-record. Elsewhere, Marcos Castillo and Corey Treyes took home All-Black College Nines accolades.
In the final regular season game of the 2018 campaign at UMBC on May 9, one that seemed to reflect the fight and effort put forth by the Eagles all year, Coppin came from behind to defeat the Retrievers, 13-11. In doing so, Reed won his 84th career game at Coppin, breaking Jason Booker's old mark which stood for 21 years and was honored as the MEAC Coach of the Year.
In 2019, Reed led the Navy & Gold to a school-record 24 victories with 15 coming in conference play. Starting out 2-0 for the first time since 1985, CSU won five of its first six games and took a game from Charlotte prior to the start of MEAC competition. Some other big wins came in the second game of a doubleheader on April 6 at Maryland Eastern Shore where Reed picked up his 100th career win, and on April 17 at Towson which was the 20th win of the year and the first time in program-history that the Eagles defeated their crosstown rival.
Following the record-breaking year, Coppin put six players on All-MEAC teams, matching the school-record they set the year prior. Justin Banks earned First Team accolades and put up several numbers that ranked in the Top 20 nationally.
During the 2018 and 2019 seasons, the Eagles went a league-best 33-13 in MEAC games.
Coppin has qualified for the MEAC Championship seven out of the past ten years (no Tournament in 2020). The Eagles were a semi-finalist in the 2013 Tournament after beating Bethune-Cookman and NC A&T, as well as 2018 with a win over Florida A&M. They came close to duplicating that feat in 2016 before losing a 12th inning hardly fought contest to Norfolk State 7-6. Under Reed, the 2013 Eagles had the nation’s highest win turnaround percentage while winning 18 games.
Reed became Coppin’s second-winningest coach in school history after the 9-5 victory over NC A&T on February 18, 2018, and just completed his fifth year serving as President of the MEAC Baseball Coaches Association. Reed is also finished his fifth year serving on the NCAA Division I Baseball Regional Advisory Committee for the Atlantic Region.
Reed was an assistant coach at Coppin State in 2008 under former head coach Harvey Lee and in 2009 working with Mike Scolinos.
“This is like coming home for me,” said Reed. “I was raised in West Baltimore; I went to public schools here and I have family members that graduated from Coppin State. I recognize that there are only 301 Division I coaching jobs and am very honored that the University believes than I am the right person to turn the program around.”
Reed was inducted into the Oldtimers Baseball Association of Maryland Hall of Fame in October 2013.
Reed played collegiately at Towson State under former Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers manager Billy Hunter. He then spent 10 seasons playing independent baseball prior to beginning his coaching career.
The Baltimore native has coached at various levels, including Western Tech and Catonsville High Schools, pony league and Cal Ripken collegiate baseball.
Additionally, he was the director of the Yankee Rebels Baseball Club from 2005-10 which is one of the oldest amateur baseball club in Maryland and was the coordinator of the Urban Baseball Camp for the Kansas City Royals in 2008-09.
He graduated from Towson in 1983 with a degree in instructional technology and later earned his M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins in 1999.
Reed and his wife, Dorothy have three children, Tynetta, Candice and Sherman, Jr. and reside in Catonsville.
