Al Bellotto, who is the younger brother of head coach Chris Bellotto, has been a member of the Florida Southern coaching staff for 25 years covering two different time periods. He’s helped the Moccasins make 16 trips to NCAA postseason play, and win nearly 900 games. During his career, he’s also helped the Moccasins capture 15 Sunshine State Conference championships and five South Region titles. The most recent regional championship for Bellotto came in 2007, when the Moccasins went 51-15, and finished fourth at the Division II National Tournament. Those accomplishments made him part of the 2007 NFCA South Region Coaching Staff-of-the-Year.
Bellotto was also a member of the 1993 national championship team and much of the Mocs’ success at the plate that year was attributed to his work with the hitters. The Moccasins hit .371 that year, a school record at the time, which included a .333 average in the national tournament. Two years later, they set another team record when they hit .376, a mark still stands in the Florida Southern record book.
Since returning to the staff in 2007, Bellotto has seen Florida Southern finish with numerous hitters among the Sunshine State Conference individual leaders, and two different players have hit well over .400 during that time. The 2009 Moccasins set a school record for home runs, the same year Bellotto was credited with the mid-season turn-around of centerfielder Dani Blake, who the Mocs switched from a right-handed hitter to a left-handed slapper in March. Hitting just .122 at the time of the switch, Blake hit .319 afterwards, and .340 over the final 20 games. She was one of three Florida Southern players to hit over .350 in 2011, earning her a spot on the All-SSC Team.
Blake hasn’t been the only Moccasin hitter in recent years to benefit from Bellotto’s coaching experience. In 2012, Karlyn Scott completed a similar transformation from right-handed to left-handed hitter, finished sixth in the SSC with a .358 batting average, and was both a First Team All-SSC and Academic All-American selection. Current Moccasin Jordan Alexander has seen her batting numbers rise significantly over the last two seasons as both a right and left-handed hitter, and in the early-to-mid- 1990’s, Traci Wood underwent the same type of turn-around and developed into one of the best players to ever wear a Florida Southern uniform as a 2-time All-American.
A former member of the Florida Southern baseball team, Bellotto was an outfielder and catcher for the Moccasins, and prior to that was an All-State selection as an outfielder at Lakeland High School. Bellotto was also an All-State quarterback for the Dreadnaughts, one of the top high school football programs in the country.
Updated for the 2016 season
