In his fourth season as a member of the University of Evansville baseball coaching staff, Mike Gilner serves as UE's pitching coach and works closely with the Aces’ catchers. Gilner was promoted from volunteer coach to full-time assistant coach in January, 2011.
A former college catcher at Coffeyville Community College and the University of Kansas, Gilner helped develop Cody Fick into one of the best pitchers in the Missouri Valley Conference, as well as one of the best two-way players in the nation in 2011. Fick, a first team all-MVC pick, headlining a UE cast of four, became one of only two players in Evansville baseball history to earn multiple All-America honors in the same season, being named an ABCA/Rawlings first team All-America selection by the American Baseball Coaches Association, and was a second team Louisville Slugger All-American as selected by Collegiate Baseball. With the help of Gilner, Fick was also named Region V Player of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America and was a finalist for the College Baseball Hall of Fame’s John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award. Fick was also a 23rd round pick by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2011 Major League Baseball Draft as a pitcher.
In 2010, Gilner mentored true freshmen catchers Chris Pearson and John Day behind the plate. Pearson and Day emerged as a solid catching duo in Missouri Valley Conference play, as UE limited the opposition to the fourth-lowest stolen base total in league play while committing just two passed balls in MVC action.
Gilner came to UE in the fall of 2008 after spending three years at Division II Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. At Washburn, Gilner served as the program’s pitching coach his first two years before being elevated to associate head coach in 2008. Gilner helped the Ichabods win the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Conference Tournament for the first time since 2001, while also helping the squad to its lowest team earned run average since 1999. He coached 11 all-conference players while at Washburn, including three all-region players and one MIAA Freshman of the Year.
Gilner has also gained valuable experience as both an assistant and head coach in the K.I.T., Coastal Plain and Northwoods Leagues during the summer. In 2009, Gilner served as the head coach of the Union City Greyhounds of the K.I.T. League. He helped the Greyhounds finish second in the league during both the regular-season and post-season. Gilner also coached with the Rochester Honkers in the Northwoods League in 2008, and the Florence Red Wolves of the Coastal Plain League in 2007.
Gilner began his coaching career as an assistant baseball and basketball coach at Tonganoxie High School. He also served as the head coach of the Tonganoxie American Legion Post 41 squad, leading the team to a 50-15 overall record and back-to-back league championships.
