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2008 Oberlin Baseball Prospectus (PDF)
February 6 – Oberlin College head baseball coach Eric Lahetta announced the hiring of Brett Higgins as a volunteer assistant coach for the 2008 season. Higgins will serve as the Yeomen’s hitting instructor and will also work with Oberlin’s catchers and outfielders.
“Brett has a tremendous baseball background,” Lahetta said. “He will help us in every phase of the game by not only developing our hitters, but improving our defense in the outfield and behind the plate.”
Higgins, a 1995 graduate of Euclid High School and Cleveland, Ohio native, played his final two years of college baseball at Savannah State – setting multiple school and NCAA records along the way. Higgins, a two-time All-America selection (1999, 2000) by the American Baseball Coaches Association, led the country in batting average (.513), hits (98), doubles (32), runs scored (87), runs batted in (93), total bases (193), slugging percentage (1.010), and finished sixth in the nation in homeruns (19) in 2000. Playing an independent schedule, Savannah State started the season off with an NCAA Division II record of 46 consecutive wins and finished the 2000 season 46-3. His efforts helped the Tigers lead the nation with an average of 12.59 runs scored a game.
Higgins, who started his collegiate career at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio where he guided his teams to back-to-back conference championships in 1997 and 1998, signed a minor-league contract with the Seattle Mariners in June of 2000.
He was assigned to the Mariners’ Class A affiliate Everett AquaSox in Everett, Washington located in the Puget Sound region. During that season, Higgins hit .210 with five homeruns, and 23 runs batted in while playing catcher and first base. He played with Major League Baseball players such as Dan Wilson, Gil Meche, Freddy Garcia, Jamal Strong, and Rob Ramsey. At that time, the AquaSox were a member of the Northwest league, whose alumni from 2000 include Garrett Adkins (Rockies), Boof Bonser (Twins), Jason Ellison (Giants), Brad Hawpe (Rockies), Koyie Hill (Cubs), Lance Niekro (Giants), and Shane Victorino (Phillies).
Since the winter of 2000-01, Higgins has been working at Fielders Choice Baseball instructional school in Brecksville, Ohio giving private lessons, working camps and clinics, and coaching numerous youth teams. In addition he also assisted the Cuyahoga Community College baseball team during the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
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