Timothy Ian Walton (born August 6, 1972) is an American college softball coach and a former college and professional baseball player. Walton is currently the head coach of the Florida Gators softball team of the University of Florida.
 | |
| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head Coach |
| Team | Florida |
| Conference | SEC |
| Record | 980–238 (.811) |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | August 6, 1972 Cerritos, California, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| Baseball | |
| 1992–1993 | Cerritos |
| 1994–1995 | Oklahoma |
| Position(s) | Pitcher |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1999–2002 | Oklahoma (asst.) |
| 2003–2005 | Wichita State |
| 2006–present | Florida |
| 2010–2011 | USSSA Pride |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 1,103–302 (.785) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| Awards | |
| |
He has a 839-182 (.822) record at Florida. He is a five-time SEC Coach of the Year and helped the Gators set the SEC single-season record wins at 27 and NCAA single-season record wins at 70 in 2008. Ten years later, he helped them set the NCAA record for the most walks at 360 that season.
Walton has led the Gators to 8 SEC regular season championships, 5 SEC championships, 14 Regional appearances, 12 Super Regional appearances, and 10 Women's College World Series appearances with back-to-back Women's College World Series Championships in 2014 and 2015. With that success, he and his coaching staff won the 2015 NFCA Division I National Coaching Staff of the Year and are five time NFCA Southeast Region Coaching Staff of the Year Selections. Walton has been able to breed 43 NFCA All-American honors, 62 All-SEC honors, 2 USA Softball Player of the Year recipients, 3 Honda Award winners, 10 SEC Player and Pitcher of the Year honorees, and one NFCA Freshman of the Year. Players under Coach Walton have excelled off the field with 18 CoSIDA Academic All-American honors, 127 appearances in the SEC Honor Roll, and 55 SEC Academic Honor Roll First-Year recipients.
Walton graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in history. He played professional baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1995 to 1997. He is married and has two sons and a daughter. [1]
Playing career
editWalton first attended Cerritos College in his hometown of Cerritos, California, where he played for the Cerritos Falcons baseball team in 1992 and 1993. After his sophomore year, he transferred to the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, where he was a two-year letter-winner for the Oklahoma Sooners baseball team in 1994 and 1995. As a Sooner baseball player, Walton participated in two consecutive College World Series, earning a win in the Sooners' 13–5 victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the 1994 College World Series championship game. He graduated from the university with his bachelor's degree in history in 1996.
After college, he played with the Philadelphia Phillies minor league organization for two seasons.[2]
Coaching career
editWalton was an assistant coach for the Oklahoma Sooners softball team of his alma mater, the University of Oklahoma, for four seasons from 1999 to 2002. He accepted the head coaching position for the Wichita State Shockers softball team at Wichita State University after the 2002 season, and tallied a three-season win–loss record of 123–64 from 2003 to 2005.
After taking over the Florida Gators softball program in 2006, Walton has compiled an overall win–loss record of 331–80 (.805) as the Gators' head coach.[3] All six of his Gators teams have qualified for the NCAA Tournament. In both 2008 and 2009, the Gators won the Southeastern Conference championship and the SEC tournament title. Since 2008, eight of his ten Gators teams have advanced to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, with his 2014 and 2015 teams winning the NCAA championship.
Personal
editWalton is married to the former Samantha Rhoten, who played basketball at Oral Roberts University. The Waltons have two sons and a daughter.[3]
Head coaching record
edit| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wichita State Shockers (Missouri Valley Conference) (2003–2005) | |||||||||
| 2003 | Wichita State | 39–20 | 16–9 | 3rd | |||||
| 2004 | Wichita State | 38–26 | 15–12 | 5th | |||||
| 2005 | Wichita State | 46–18 | 22–4 | 2nd | NCAA Regional | ||||
| Wichita State: | 123–64 (.658) | 53–25 (.679) | |||||||
| Florida Gators (Southeastern Conference) (2006–Present) | |||||||||
| 2006 | Florida | 43–25 | 17–13 | 3rd (East) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2007 | Florida | 50–22 | 17–11 | 2nd (East) | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2008 | Florida | 70–5 | 27–1 | 1st (East) | Women's College World Series | ||||
| 2009 | Florida | 63–5 | 26–1 | 1st (East) | Women's College World Series (Runner-Up) | ||||
| 2010 | Florida | 49–10 | 20–4 | 1st (East) | Women's College World Series | ||||
| 2011 | Florida | 56–13 | 21–7 | 1st (East) | Women's College World Series (Runner-Up) | ||||
| 2012 | Florida | 48–13 | 21–7 | 2nd (East) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2013 | Florida | 58–9 | 18–6 | 1st (East) | Women's College World Series | ||||
| 2014 | Florida | 55–12 | 15–9 | 4th | Women's College World Series Champions | ||||
| 2015 | Florida | 60–7 | 18–5 | 1st | Women's College World Series Champions | ||||
| 2016 | Florida | 56–7 | 20–4 | 1st | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2017 | Florida | 58–10 | 20–3 | 1st | Women's College World Series (Runner-Up) | ||||
| 2018 | Florida | 56–11 | 20–4 | 1st | Women's College World Series | ||||
| 2019 | Florida | 49–18 | 12–12 | T–6th | Women's College World Series | ||||
| 2020 | Florida | 23–4[a] | 3–0 | Postseason not held | |||||
| 2021 | Florida | 45–11 | 19–5 | T–1st | NCAA Super Regional | ||||
| 2022 | Florida | 49–19 | 13–11 | T–4th | Women's College World Series | ||||
| 2023 | Florida | 38–22 | 11–13 | 8th | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2024 | Florida | 54–15 | 17–7 | 2nd | Women's College World Series | ||||
| Florida: | 980–238 (.805) | 335–123 (.731) | |||||||
| Total: | 1,103–302 (.785) | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
| |||||||||
- ^ The season was not played past March 11 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ "Tim Walton - Softball Coach". Florida Gators. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
- ^ "Tim Walton". baseball-reference. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
- ^ a b GatorZone.com, Softball, Coaching & Support Staff, Tim Walton. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
External links
edit- Tim Walton – Official biography at GatorZone.com.