Charles 'Buddy' Bolding is in his 30th season as head coach of the tradition-rich Longwood Baseball program during 2007-08. Coach Bolding enters the season just five wins from a milestone 800 career coaching victories at the school after leading the Lancers to a winning record of 34-19 during 2007, the program’s 27th winning season in 30 years. It was the program’s 12th 30-win season, the 20th 25-win season, and the 26th 20-win season overall.
The Lancers finished 23-27 during 2006, the program’s second season of competing against a full NCAA Division I schedule. Prior to playing its first Division I schedule in 2005, as required during the recent Division I Reclassification process, Bolding had coached Longwood to 26 consecutive winning seasons.
Coach Bolding has an outstanding overall record of 795-409-3 (.659) since taking over the program during the fall of 1978. In 2005, Longwood finished 16-32, though in 2004, the Lancers finished 31-16 for the program’s eleventh 30-win season, nineteenth 25-win season, and twenty-fourth consecutive 20-win campaign.
Bolding's tenure at Longwood is highlighted by six appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament, and two trips to the Division II College World Series. Bolding's 1982 team was the first team to reach the national championship with a 31-10-1 record. More recently, the 1991 squad completed a school-record 41-8 campaign while advancing to the final four of the national championship.
Longwood was third in the North Atlantic Region Tournament in 1993 after winning seven games in a row at season's end, finishing 26-9-1. Bolding teams have also notched third-place finishes in the North Atlantic in 1992 and the South Atlantic Region Tournament in 1984 and 1987. Bolding reached the 700-victory milestone March 9, 2004 with a 12-0 victory past Elizabeth City State at Lancer Stadium during a doubleheader sweep (12-0, 7-6). Bolding reached 600-victories in 2000, 500-victories in 1997, 400-victories in 1993, 300 victories in 1990, 200 victories in 1986, and 100 victories in 1983.
Seven of Bolding's former players have been chosen in the Major League Baseball Draft (MLB) since 1988. Kansas City chose Longwood outfielder Frankie Watson (7th-R) and shortstop Kelvin Davis (24th-R) in 1988, while in 1992, the Royals drafted Lancer shortstop Michael Tucker (1st-R, #10 overall) and catcher Scott Abell (37th-R). Outfielder LaRon Wilson (17th-R) was drafted by the New York Mets in 2002, and catcher Jeremy Knicely (42nd-R) was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2003. Former Longwood standout Brian Medley signed a free agent contract with the San Diego Padres in 2004, and Lancer slugger Charlie Yarbrough (7th-R) was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2006.
Tucker played for Kansas City (twice), Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago (Cubs), San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, and New York (Mets). He was the 10th pick in the 1992 draft and played on the U.S. Olympic team that summer.
Bolding is serving this year as one of just 31 coaches nationwide on The USA TODAY/ESPN Board of Coaches for its weekly national poll. He is a former member of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Division II National Committee, and was an area representative for the North Atlantic Region of the ABCA -- one of eight nationwide as a liaison between the region’s coaches and the ABCA advisory committee.
Highly regarded by his peers, Bolding has served on NCAA regional selection committees nine times. In 1983 he was a member of the Olympic baseball tryout staff for Virginia. He was voted South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year in 1991 and 1982, and Virginia College Division Coach of the Year in 1997, 1993, 1991, and 1984. Bolding has been chosen Longwood Male Coach of the Year a record seven times.
The Hardy, Va. native has built the program at Longwood by recruiting mostly in-state players. An estimated 30 former Lancer baseball players are now involved in coaching on the high school or college level, the majority in Virginia. Bolding is known to be close to his players.
"I feel he's a player's coach," former All-American shortstop John Sullivan once told a sportswriter. "He gets the most out of you he possibly can. When I got there I was a decent player, and when I left I was an All-American."
A highly successful high school coach, Bolding guided Staunton River High in Bedford County to a 47-22 mark in three years before coming to Longwood.
Bolding served as a U.S. Army medic in Vietnam, then received his B.S. in health, physical education and recreation from Milligan (Tenn.) College in 1973, and his M.S. from the University of Tennessee in 1974.
He and his wife, Andrea, have three children: Lauren, Suzanne, and Brad -- all of whom attended and two who graduated -- from Longwood (Brad also played as a Lancer before graduating from Old Dominion University).
