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Longwood University Athletics

Jordan Ellerson
Ray Noe

Ray Noe

In just his second season at the helm of Longwood baseball after being hired in the summer of 2024, Noe guided the Lancers to one of their best seasons in team history.
 
The 2026 season saw Longwood reach a variety of major milestones as the team posted its best Big South Championship finish ever.
 
Noe led the team to a 34-27 campaign, with the 34 wins matching the team’s best mark at the Division I level, set in 2007. In addition, the 20-win improvement from 2025 was tied with the biggest year-by-year improvement in team history, matching the team’s 1991 effort that concluded with a trip to the Division II World Series.
 
The Lancers went on a tear in the Big South Championship, advancing to the championship game and forcing the ‘if necessary’ game on the final day. He led the team to five straight wins in the conference tournament in a run through the lower bracket, with the five wins more than doubling the team’s best effort at the Big South Tournament.
 
Since the Big South went to a six-team tournament, no other team had ever beaten all five other teams in the tournament field until Longwood pulled it off. Four players (Jon Howard, Ben Pulliam, Jae’dan Carter and JR Fordham) garnered Big South All-Tournament Team honors.
 
In addition, Longwood had a pair of First-Team All-Big South selections in JR Fordham and Jaxon Lloyd. The duo of Brady Hoover and Ben Pulliam also earned All-Freshman Team honors.
 
The Lancers broke the team’s walks-drawn record by drawing 306 at the plate, shattering the previous mark by 42. The team also hit 55 home runs, the most at the Division I level, with Howard finishing with 16 to tie for the second-most in a single season (behind only Michael Tucker). Pulliam also hit 23 doubles, good for the second-most in a single season. Tré Keels also broke the single-season walks record with 46.
 
Longwood also led the Big South in steals for a second straight season, and the team’s pitching staff piled up 509 strikeouts, two shy of the team record of 511.
 
In his first season leading the team, the Lancers had an offense that led the Big South in steals while having three players earn all-conference accolades: Myles Webb (Big South First Team), Mikey Urbaniak (Big South Freshman Team) and James Nelson (Big South Academic Team). The team went 14-38 overall and 8-16 in the Big South.
 
Prior to Longwood, Noe worked his way up the bench at Virginia Military Institute, serving as lead assistant and recruiting coordinator in 2023-24. He guided a VMI offense that posted 73 home runs, with Grayson Fitzwater breaking the program record for home runs in a single season. As a team, the Keydets batted .292, the fourth-best average in the Southern Conference, and they led the nation with 178 stolen bases. In addition, the team ranked 36th in the nation with a .410 on base percentage.
 
As the team’s hitting coach in 2023, he helped guide VMI to a historic season on offense. The Keydets finished fifth in the nation with a .322 batting average, tied for 44th in hits and tied for 49th in runs. In addition, the squad ranked 16th in slugging percentage (.529) and 25th in on base percentage (.409).
 
Noe started his collegiate career as an assistant at VMI in 2019, working his way up to the lead assistant and recruiting coordinator role in the fall of 2023.
 
A four-year starter on the baseball team at Wittenberg University from 2007-11, he was an all-conference and all-state selection as a senior. He served as a team captain for his final two seasons as well.
 
Even while he played, Noe began to lay the foundation for his coaching career, working with Ohio Elite Baseball in Dublin, Ohio throughout his four years at Wittenberg. After obtaining his degree in early education/intervention specialist in 2011, he served as a coach at the high school level for the next seven years.
 
He posted a 52-32 record in his last stop at Pickerington High School Central before moving to IMG Academy, where he worked from 2018-19. While at IMG, he worked with the outfielders on the top-ranked team in the country and dove into analytics before moving to VMI.
 
In addition to his undergraduate degree from Wittenburg, Noe obtained a Master’s of Sports Coaching from The Ohio State University in 2018.
 
He and his wife, Mary, have one daughter, Emilia.
 
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