Almost as impressive as Lamar University head coach Jim Gilligan’s tenure at the helm of the baseball program has to be the time that Jim Ricklefsen has spent as his right hand man. The Houston native is heading into his 19th season with the Cardinals, sixth as the team’s associate head coach.
Ricklefsen has helped Lamar to four NCAA Regionals appearances, two Southland Conference regular season championships, two league tournament titles and 12 35-win seasons. During the 2003 and 2004 league championships, he helped LU to back-to-back 40-win seasons (81-34 during the two seasons).
He serves as the Cardinals’ recruiting coordinator in addition to coaching third base, working with the infielders, defensive alignment and assisting the hitters. Ricklefsen takes great pride in LU’s defense, and under his tutelage the Cardinals have topped the league five times. In 2015 the team recorded the nation’s 15th best fielding percentage and the 20th best in 2013.
Last season, he was key in the development of Jake Nash, who played three different defensive position during the year (third base, first base, left field), and ranked eighth in the Southland Conference in fielding percentage and seventh in chances.
In the 18 seasons that he’s been with LU, the Cardinals have had a .960 or better fielding percentage 14 times and a .970 or better four times. The program’s fielding percentage record of .977 in season was under his instruction, both 2013 and 2015. Before him, LU had just five times eclipsed the .960 mark in program history.
Ricklefsen came to Lamar after spending 11 seasons at McNeese State, the final three as head coach. There he posted an 81-79 record, including tying a school record for wins in a season on a 41-16 campaign in 1995. The Cowboys’ .719 winning percentage that season set a school record. He began his coaching career at MSU in 1987 as a graduate assistant before taking an assistant job in 1988.
With the exception of the two seasons he spent in the Sun Belt Conference during his first years at LU, he has made a name for himself throughout the Southland Conference, where he has built a reputation as one of the top recruiters in Texas and Louisiana.
In the 29 seasons Ricklefsen has been in a Division I dugout, he had amassed 128 all-conference players, 84 athletes drafted in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft and nine players make it to the MLB. He has worked with or recruited six league players of the year, five hitters of the year, five pitchers of the year, three newcomers of the year and five freshman of the year.
In 2013 when the Southland Conference released its teams of each decade, Ricklefsen recruited 20 total players make it to either the 1990s or 2000s teams.
In 2006, Cardinal Collin DeLome was named as the Southland Conference Player of the Year and Hitter of the Year after he wrapped up the year with a .376 batting average, 11 home runs and 56 runs batted in. He was LU’s first player and third hitter of the year.
Maybe the most impressive accolade is the three-straight SLC Player of the Years he helped McNeese State to in Chip Stratton (1988), Jeff Gremillion (1989) and Terry Burrows (1990). Gremillion was named Hitter of the Year in ’89 and Burrows was Pitcher of the Year in ’90. Only once has that happed in the league again.
Along with DeLome, Ricklefsen has helped Michael Amort (2005) and Sam Bumpers (2014) to be picked as the league’s Hitter of the Year. Ambort was a two-time All-American (2005, 2007) and Bumpers in 2014. During his tenure at LU, Ricklefsen has seen six All-American seasons and six Freshman All-American Years.
Included in that was Jordan Foster who was named as an All-American by Collegiate Baseball, ABCA and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association for his 2003 campaign. He accumulated a .417 batting average, crushed seven dingers and pushed in 71 RBI. He eventually staked his claim to LU’s career batting average, hits and doubles records.
Academics has been a big part of the Lamar Baseball program as well, which have had 53 student-athletes named to the league’s honor in the last three seasons alone. Seven of those were picked to the Southland Conference All-Academic Team.
At McNeese, he posted a 275-149 record during his time on staff and won a league championship and one conference tournament title along with two NCAA Tournament appearances. His Cowboys finished second in the Southland Conference standings in 1995 and second in the league tournament. McNeese sent 10 players form that squad to the professional ranks, the highest number or any school in that nation that year.
Ricklefsen played collegiately at McNeese State, where he was a three-year starter as both an infielder and outfield. He posted a career-best .333 batting average during his senior season. Twice he led the team in stolen bases and hit 11 career home runs. He played junior college baseball at San Jacinto under legendary coach Wayne Graham, now the national champion head coach at Rice University.
He served three years on the NCAA’s Southern Region At-Large Search Advisory Baseball Committee, which recommends at-large teams to be selected to play in the NCAA Regionals. Ricklefsen, an avid fisherman who went to Northbrook High School, and his wife, Andrea, have one daughter-Lauren.
Ricklefsen’s Accomplishments
- 1989 Southland Conference Championships, NCAA Regional Berth
- 1993 Southland Conference Tournament Championships, NCAA Regional Berth
- 2002 Southland Conference Tournament Championship, NCAA Regional Berth
- Back-to-Back Southland Conference Championships (2003, 2004), NCAA Regional Berths
- 2010 Southland Conference Tournament Championship, NCAA Regional Berth
- Coached or recruited 84 drafted players
- Coached and recruited nine players to reach the Major Leagues
- 128 All-Conference Athletes
- Six Conference Players of the Year
- Five Conference Hitters of the Year
- Five Conference Pitchers of the Year
- Three Conference Newcomers of the Year
- Five Conference Freshmen of the Year
- Nine Players coached or recruited on the 90s Southland Conference All-Decade Team
- 11 players coached and recruited on the 00s Southland Conference All-Decade Team
