Rick O’Dette was named the eighth head coach of the Florida Southern College baseball program by Director of Athletics & Dean of Wellness Drew Howard on June 14, 2024.
O’Dette comes to Lakeland with 24 years of head coaching experience, all at the NCAA Division II level. Most recently the head coach at fellow Sunshine State Conference institution Saint Leo University for the last seven years, O’Dette spent 17 years at the helm of St. Joseph’s College (Ind.), his alma mater, and begins a new era of Florida Southern baseball with nearly 700 career wins under his belt.
In his first season as the head coach of Florida Southern, O'Dette turned the program around with a 38-15-1 overall record, culminating in hosting duties of the 2025 NCAA DII South Region #2 tournament. The Mocs went 2-2 in that tournament, losing in the bracket title game. He coached eight all-conference winners, one all-region winner, and kept FSC in the top 25 national rankings all year. O'Dette was also named a Division II Coach of the Year by Perfect Game in 2025.
A native of Chicago, Ill., O’Dette took over the reins at Saint Leo in the summer of 2017, inheriting a team that achieved 23 wins in the year previous, and made an immediate impact with a 38-11 overall record in his first season with the Lions. Amassing 183 wins over seven seasons with SLU, O’Dette took the Lions to the NCAA regional tournament in 2022 and 2024, hosting the NCAA South Region second bracket both years. O’Dette went on to win the NCBWA South Region Coach of the Year and SSC Coach of the Year in 2022, the first in 24 years for the program. In seven seasons with the Lions, O’Dette led talented teams that cracked the top 25 on several occasions, including a top-10 ranking earlier in 2024. O’Dette has coached 25 All-SSC honorees, nine All-South regional award winners, and two NCBWA/D2CCA All-Americans. Under O'Dette's coaching, star SLU pitcher Luke Lashutka was drafted in the 2024 MLB Draft by the Miami Marlins, O'Dette's most recent athlete drafted.
Prior to his time at Saint Leo, O’Dette was the head coach at Saint Joseph’s College of Indiana, where he led the Pumas for 17 seasons and amassed a 494-407-4 overall record. In his final campaign at Saint Joseph’s College, O’Dette guided the Pumas to a 35-22 record and the program’s fourth berth in the NCAA Midwest Regional. He was recognized as the Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year two times in his career, including his final season for Saint Joseph in 2017. Thirty-two of O’Dette’s players have gone on to play professional baseball, including 11 who were drafted or signed as free agents by Major League Baseball teams.
O’Dette was a three-year baseball letterwinner and a pitcher on the Pumas’ 1996 NCAA Division II national runner-up squad. He finished his career with a 15-3 record on the mound, earning All-North Central Region honors in 1996 and getting tabbed as an All-GLVC selection in 1997. O’Dette was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 15th round of the 1997 MLB First-Year Player Draft and played at four different levels within the Red Sox organization. In recognition of his coaching and playing achievements, O’Dette was a 2012 inductee into the Saint Joseph’s College Sports Hall of Fame.
O’Dette earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Saint Joseph’s College in 1999 and resides in Wesley Chapel, Fla. with his wife, Sherry, and kids, Ricky and Aly.
