First impressions leave indelible mark on new Nicholls Colonel baseball coach Haring

Brent Haring had an opportunity Thursday morning to make an impression on the crowd gathered at the Danos Theater on the Nicholls campus as he was introduced as the Colonels’ new baseball coach.

Most recently the director or operations at LSU, Thursday wasn’t the first time the new coach was on the Thibodaux campus. The first time came in 2014 when the then Brigham Young University assistant coach was in town when the Cougars took on the Colonels. On that occasion, it was the Nicholls program and community that made an impression on him.

In 2013, BYU played at LSU and Southeastern Louisiana. The Cougars made a return trip to the state the following year to take on the Colonels.

“In 2014, we came to Nicholls. I’ll never forget,” Haring recalled. “On Thursday night, we came out and just driving in town, you could feel the community here. People came out to the games. It was the first time I think in my career that I’d ever seen anything quite like a coaches committee.

“Those dudes sat down there on the on first base side and they gave it to us for the whole game. It was memorable because our starting pitcher threw a no-hitter that night, but those guys, were incredible. I was totally blown away by the support of the community and the feeling that you feel at Ray Didier Field. I remember going back to the hotel and telling the (BYU) head coach, ‘Coach, this place is awesome. This place is incredible.’”

He seemed to fit right in.

“Of course, after the game, they’re feeding us and telling us, ‘we’re so glad you’re here.’ Then they told me I was fat. They made this thing special. I told my wife, ‘this place is awesome.’ It’s always been on my radar ever since then.”  

Haring, with 22 years of coaching experience, replaces Mike Silva. Silva directed the Nicholls program for three years, leading the Colonels to the NCAA Regionals the last two seasons. Following the 2024 season, Silva left to become the new coach at Arkansas State.

“Three years ago when Coach (Seth) Thibodeaux left and they went through a coaching change, I applied. I tried hard to get it. The timing wasn’t right for me, and you guys brought in Coach Silva, who laid an incredible foundation for this program for winning championships and for doing things the right way. I am super grateful that this time around is my time and I get to be here with you. I believe in this place and I’m so grateful to be here,” the new Nicholls coach said at his press conference.

Nicholls moved quickly to hire Silva’s replacement.

“We conducted a national search and one thing that kept coming back to all of us, and mostly to me, was the importance of truly wanting this job and this opportunity and to be at Nicholls State University,” said Jonathan Terrell, vice-president of athletics at Nicholls.

“It’s a players’ game, we hear that often,” Terrell continued. “The one thing about the person that we chose is his recruiting background. We talk about Thibodaux, and we talked about how beautiful this place is. We talk about Nicholls State University with the championships we’ve won, despite the odds. It’s about the right fit and the right people. We have a great community, we love you hard, which makes it tough to leave this place, but with that, we are thrilled to introduce Brent Haring as our 14th head baseball coach.”

Prior to his arrival at LSU, Haring served as the associate head coach at BYU

.Haring, who was promoted to associate head coach in 2023, coordinated BYU recruiting, working with infielders and supervising team defense for 10 years with the Cougars.

Joining BYU in 2012, the Cougars won the West Coast Conference regular season titles in 2016, 2017 and 2019, along with the WCC Tournament crown in 2017 in his years with the program.

He served as head coach of the American Samoa National Team and its various divisions since 2010. In January 2019, the team defeated Australia, ranked No. 7 in the world, and took second place at the Oceania U-18 Baseball Championship in Guam.

Haring was an assistant coach at Utah Tech for three seasons. He has also coached at Harding University, Mount Olive College, College of the Ozarks, and Southern Virginia.

He played for Colorado Northwestern Junior College and at Southern Virginia. Haring earned a master’s degree in 2009 in education/kinesiology from Harding University in Arkansas.

While the Colonels are coming off back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances, Haring has a major rebuilding job on his hands.

Nicholls lost 17 seniors off of the 2024 squad. Additionally, the Colonels lost their top two starters from a year ago when sophomore Jacob Mayers left for LSU and junior Michael Quevedo for Kansas State via the transfer portal.

All avenues, Haring said, will be explored to bring talented baseball players to Nicholls.

“I think there’s a mix,” he said. “Yes, I think I think we can sneak in and get some high-end high school kids right now because of the transfer portal. Some of those higher-end high school kids are maybe going under the radar a little more and so you can bring them in and develop them, and that’s great.

“Obviously, if you look over the last couple of years of college baseball, the best teams have been older teams and I think that’s due to the transfer portal. You can use the transfer portal. You can use the junior college ranks. Where we’re at, it’s a beautiful place. It’s warm here and there’s plenty of junior college kids and transfer portal kids that are playing in that cold and would give anything they have to be able to come down and play in southern Louisiana.”

What type of team will Haring try to build at Nicholls?

“A super competitive team that fights and scraps and grinds,” said Haring. “I think that’s kind of what you find down here on the bayou – blue collar people that that aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and go to work. We’re going to try to mess right in with that and to embody what our community is.”

Personnel, said Haring, will dictate the style of play.

“I’ve always been a fan of big, physical bodies, guys that can bang a little bit,” Haring said. “I’ve said this earlier; I believe championships are won with pitching, defense, and timely hitting. We’re going to try to get big arms in here that can pitch and that know how to pitch and can throw multiple pitches for strikes and control the count and play defense behind them.

“Then we’ll be able to put different bullets in our gun as far as running and bunting and small ball versus like getting in there and banging. I think there’s a place for all of that within the team.”

Although his recent stops have been at large schools like LSU and Brigham Young, Haring played and coached at smaller schools, which could help with the realities of competing at a program the size of Nicholls.

“I think I’m built for this kind of place, to be totally honest,” Haring said. “You have to go out and rely on the community and be a part of it. I’m really excited about that. I think everywhere has its challenges. I view our challenges as probably more of a blessing than a challenge anyway. We will have to go out and scrap and fight and get what we get, but we’ll do it.”