Gary Henderson (baseball coach)

Gary Henderson
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Utah
Conference	Big 12
Record	81–81–2 (.500)
Biographical details
Born	February 3, 1961 (age 63); Eugene, Oregon, U.S.
Alma mater	San Diego State University
Playing career
1980	Linfield
1982–1984	San Diego State
Position(s)	Pitcher
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1988	San Diego State (JV HC)
1989	Cal State Fullerton (Asst.)
1990	Riverside CC (Asst.)
1991–1992	Chapman (Asst.)
1993	Chapman
1994	Pepperdine (Asst.)
1995–1998	Florida (Asst.)
1999–2002	Oregon State (Asst.)
2003–2008	Kentucky (Asst.)
2009–2016	Kentucky
2016–2018	Mississippi State (Asst.)
2018	Mississippi State (Interim)
2020–2021	Utah (Asst.)
2022–present	Utah
Head coaching record
Overall	400–338–2 (.542)
Accomplishments and honors
Awards
	1996 Collegiate Baseball National Assistant Coach of the Year; 2012 SEC Coach of the Year ; 2018 Perfect Game/Rawlings Coach Of The Year; 2018 National College Baseball Writers Association Coach Of The Year

Gary Henderson (born February 3, 1961) is an American baseball coach and former pitcher, who is the current head baseball coach of the Utah Utes. He played college baseball at Linfield in 1980 and at San Diego State for head coach Jim Dietz from 1982 to 1984. He was the head coach of the Chapman Panthers (1993), the Kentucky Wildcats (2009–2016) and Mississippi State Bulldogs (2018).^[4]

Playing career

Henderson pitched one year at Linfield College before transferring to San Diego State University, compiling a 19–5 career record at the two schools.^[5]

Coaching career

Henderson started coaching at his alma mater, San Diego State, as the junior varsity head coach. He had assistant coaching stints at Cal State Fullerton, Riverside Community College, Chapman College (served as head coach for 1 season), and Pepperdine.

Henderson became an assistant at Florida in 1995. Following a trip to the 1996 College World Series, he was named the National Assistant Coach of the Year by Collegiate Baseball newspaper.^[5] With Henderson's assistance, Florida returned to the 1998 College World Series. After a successful stay at Florida, he moved back to the west coast as an assistant coach at Oregon State.

In 2003, he joined John Cohen's staff at Kentucky as the associate head coach. Following the 2008 season, Cohen accepted the head coaching position at his alma mater, Mississippi State, resulting in Henderson's promotion to head coach.^[5]

In 2012, Henderson was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year.^[1]

On June 1, 2016, Henderson resigned as Kentucky Baseball Coach, citing burnout due to the demands of being a head coach in the SEC.^[6]

In June 2016, Henderson was named pitching coach at Mississippi State, re-joining John Cohen.

In February 2018, Henderson was named interim head coach at Mississippi State after Andy Cannizaro resigned due to off the field indiscretions. After a poor start, the team turned around and reached the college world series. As a result, Henderson was named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Coach of the Year. Despite the success of the team, Mississippi State did not retain Henderson as head coach.^[7]

On June 20, 2019, Henderson was named the associate head coach at the University of Utah.^[8] When Bill Kinneberg resigned as head coach of the Utes, Henderson was elevated to head coach.^[9]

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Chapman Panthers (Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) (1993)
1993	Chapman	22–32
Chapman:		22–32 (.407)
Kentucky Wildcats (Southeastern Conference) (2009–2016)
2009	Kentucky	28–26	12–18	5th (East)
2010	Kentucky	31–25	13–17	4th (East)
2011	Kentucky	25–30	8–22	5th (East)
2012	Kentucky	45–18	18–12	T–2nd (East)	NCAA Regional
2013	Kentucky	30–25	11–19	4th (East)
2014	Kentucky	37–25	14–16	4th (East)	NCAA Regional
2015	Kentucky	30–25	14–15	4th (East)
2016	Kentucky	32–25	15–15	4th (East)
Kentucky:		258–199 (.565)	105–134 (.439)
Mississippi State Bulldogs (Southeastern Conference) (2018)
2018	Mississippi State	39–26	15–15	T–3rd (West)	College World Series
Mississippi State:		39–26 (.600)	15–15 (.500)
Utah Utes (Pac-12 Conference) (2022–2024)
2022	Utah	26–27–1	10–20	10th
2023	Utah	22–32–1	9–20–1	11th
2024	Utah	33–22	16–14	7th	Pac-12 Tournament
Utah Utes (Big 12 Conference) (2025–present)
2025	Utah	0–0	0–0
Utah:		81–81–2 (.500)	35–54–1 (.394)
Total:		400–338–2 (.542)
National champion Postseason invitational champion Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion