WINONA LAKE – Grace College has announced that Bill Barr will serve as the Lancers’ next head baseball coach. Barr, who has served as an assistant athletic director and associate head baseball coach at Grace for the past five months, assumes control of the program from Josh Bailey. Bailey has accepted a job with Wildman Business Group. “It’s been incredible having Bill as a member of our staff this year. We believe it will be an easy transition for him to move in as coach,” said Grace Athletic Director Bailey Weathers. “We’re sad that Josh [Bailey] decided to take a full-time position off campus, but we’re excited to have Bill lead the baseball program. Bill does a great job teaching fundamentals, particularly working 1-on-1 with the guys and with game management. We’re really excited to have Bill continue with the program and expect him to lead the team forward to great things.” Overall, Barr’s résumé includes 22 years of experience coaching baseball, 14 of which were spent at the collegiate level, and seven years of experience as an athletic director. Before coming to Grace in January, Barr was most recently the head coach at Alderson-Broaddus College in Philippi, W.V. “We anticipate great things for the future within Grace and the baseball program. I appreciate the opportunity to be the head coach for Grace,” Barr said. “The players, parents, administration and athletic department have made me feel welcome, and I appreciate the hard work that the players, Coach Bailey and his staff have done to move the program forward to the point it is today.” In Barr’s first season coaching Alderson-Broaddus in 2010, he directed the Battlers to one of their most successful seasons in program history. Alderson-Broaddus, an NCAA Division II school, was expected to finish fourth in its division of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC), but Barr guided the team to its first division title in school history and a 27-14 overall record. Barr was named the WVIAC Coach of the Year as a result, and the Battlers were ranked in the top 10 of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association for the Atlantic Region during the season. “My past experiences with Grace College as a competitor and now as an employee have been very positive and professional, which is a main reason my family and I came to Grace,” Barr said. “I understand the challenges we face moving forward but believe that the Lord has a plan and will lead us in a positive direction by blessing our efforts.” Prior to his work at Alderson-Broaddus, Barr coached the baseball team at Oklahoma Wesleyan University from 2005-09. In the year before Barr arrived at Oklahoma Wesleyan, the team finished 4-51. In Barr’s final season at Oklahoma Wesleyan, the team broke the school record for wins with a 29-26 season. Barr also nearly doubled the baseball roster during his tenure. Barr, who is nearing 300 career wins as a head coach at the collegiate level, had a successful stint at Indiana Wesleyan University. Overall, Barr took the Wildcats to four consecutive appearances in the NCCAA National Tournament and set the school record for wins when the team finished 32-21 in 1994. While at Indiana Wesleyan, his teams averaged 22 wins per season, and he was awarded as an NAIA District Coach of the Year twice and an NCCAA Regional Coach of the Year twice. Barr graduated from Mount Vernon Nazarene University with a Bachelor of Arts in Physical Education in 1983, then went on to obtain a Master of Science in Educational Administration from Ashland University in 1992. Barr and his wife Jacki, have two daughters, Bethany and Brittany.
