Fecteau, Haines to join Szefc at Virginia Tech

Dylan Sinn News

Former Maryland Head Coach John Szefc will be bringing two of his Terps assistants with him as he takes over as the head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies. Ryan Fecteau and Corey Haines are now listed on the Virginia Tech website as Assistant Coach and Director of Operations, respectively.

This is the second time in two seasons that Maryland will search for a new pitching coach, as Jim Belanger left the Terps staff last June to take a job at Kentucky.

Pitching Coach Ryan Fecteau visits the mound early in the second inning to confer with sophomore Hunter Parsons. (Hannah Evans/Maryland Baseball Network)

Fecteau, who replaced Belanger, departs Maryland after a one-year tenure as the team’s pitching coach. The New Hampshire native came to College Park in the summer of 2016 following a six-year stint at Bryant, where he molded a pitching staff that consistently dominated the Northeast Conference.

In four of his final five seasons with the Bulldogs, Fecteau’s staff boasted the NEC Pitcher of the Year. That trend continued when the coach moved on to Maryland as the Terps’ Brian Shaffer took home the top pitching award in the Big Ten in 2016.

This season, Fecteau led the Terps to a 3.98 ERA, and helped develop young arms such as Tyler Blohm and John Murphy into key pieces on the Maryland pitching staff. He will inherit a Virginia Tech pitching staff that ranked dead last in the ACC in ERA this spring with a 5.79 mark.

Unlike Fecteau, Haines was a long-term member of Maryland’s staff, serving the last five years as an assistant coach under Szefc and three previous years (2009-2011) as a student assistant and volunteer.

In his most recent stint in College Park, Haines focused on developing hitters and working with the team’s infielders. He worked with players such as Brandon Lowe (3rd round pick, Tampa Bay Rays, 2015 MLB Draft) and Kevin Smith (4th round, Toronto Blue Jays, 2017 MLB Draft), two of Maryland’s most decorated infielders in recent years.

Haines is an Elkton, Maryland, native and a Maryland alumnus, having graduated with a degree in kinesiology in 2011.

With the departure of Fecteau and Haines, new Maryland Head Coach Rob Vaughn now has two more spots to fill on the coaching staff.