Ithaca College appoints Valesente as new baseball head coach, replacing father

ITHACA, N.Y. — Ithaca College announced it has appointed David Valesente as the new head coach of the college’s baseball program.

He will succeed his father, hall of fame coach George Valesente, who announced his retirement after 41 seasons and two NCAA Division III national championships (in 1980 and 1988) at his alma mater. The 2019 Bombers posted a record of 31-9 to run the nation’s longest winning streak at any level to 81 straight seasons, according to a news release from the college.

David Valesente has served for the past three years as the head baseball coach at Wells College in Aurora. He becomes just the fourth head coach in the history of Ithaca College baseball, the college said.

Valesente, who joined Wells in 2015, was the first head coach in that program’s history — building the program from the ground up. Over the past three seasons he guided the Wells Express to an overall record of 46-63, which included an 18-22 record last season and a trip to the North Eastern Athletic Conference playoffs.

“It is with equal parts pride, responsibility and excitement that I welcome David Valesente as the next head coach for Ithaca College baseball,” Susan Bassett, Ithaca College’s associate VP and director of intercollegiate athletics and recreational sports, said in the release. “David did a terrific job during his time at Wells and quickly built that program to be competitive in its conference. It is no easy task to start a program from scratch, and David worked diligently to implement a culture on and off the field that we embody at Ithaca College.”

Prior to his appointment at Wells, Valesente was an assistant coach at his alma mater, Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, He is a 2010 graduate of St. Joe’s, with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and was a four-year member of the baseball team. Valesente was selected as the senior male athlete of the year at the university, to go along with being named a three-time most outstanding player of the team.

Upon graduation, Valesente played one year professionally with the Alpine Cowboys in the Pecos Professional Baseball League, an independent league in Texas. He went on to sign an undrafted free-agent contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2012, and eventually played two seasons in the New York-Penn League (Single-A baseball) with the State College Spikes and Jamestown Jammers.

Valesente also earned a master’s degree in sports studies from the United States Sports Academy.

His official start date as Ithaca College baseball head coach will be Aug. 19.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com

Photo credit: Ithaca College