Bill Walkenbach, a former player and assistant coach at Cornell, became the 15th head baseball coach in Cornell history and the second to carry the title of Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball when he was named to the position on August 14, 2008.
Walkenbach returns to Cornell after serving as the head coach at Division III Franklin & Marshall for the past three seasons. In his three years directing the Diplomats, he guided the program to a pair of Centennial Conference regular season championships and a 43-11 mark in league play. Overall, he helped the program to a 69-42 overall record during his three seasons directing the program.
Under Walkenbach’s direction, the Diplomats had 19 players earn all-conference honors, including five players in both 2006 and 2007. In 2006, Franklin & Marshall posted the third-highest win total in school history, going 29-11 and recording a .325 team batting average and a 2.91 team earned-run average. That season, the Diplomats also went 16-2 in Centennial Conference action, tying the school record for conference wins in a season, and knocked off Gwynedd-Mercy in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, the third NCAA tournament victory in program history. Franklin & Marshall ended the 2006 campaign ranked 13th in the nation and second in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Before being named the head coach at Franklin & Marshall, Walkenbach served as an assistant under Tom Ford at Cornell from 2003 until 2005, serving as the infield coach, hitting and baserunning instructor and first-base coach. While he was on the coaching staff in 2005, the Big Red captured its first-ever Gehrig Division championship.
Prior to his coaching stint at Cornell, Walkenbach was an assistant coach at Emory University in Atlanta during the 2002 and 2003 seasons while working on his master’s degree in sports administration at Georgia State. He helped Emory reach the 2003 Division III College World Series and a then-school-best No. 5 ranking in the final national poll.
Walkenbach also served as an assistant coach in the Cape Cod League during the summer of 2003 with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. In 2002, he was the infield coach and hitting instructor for the St. Cloud RiverBats of the NorthWoods League, helping guide that wood-bat summer-league team to the playoffs.
Walkenbach was a standout player during his collegiate career at Cornell, being voted the team’s Most Valuable Player in 1995, 1996 and 1997, joining Erik Rico as the only players in program history to earn the award three times. Despite graduating 10 years ago, he still ranks in the top five in 11 offensive categories and in the top 10 in 13 categories. He is tied for the school lead in home runs (21) and is second in runs batted in (120), sacrifice flies (eight) and at-bats (544). Walkenbach also rankes third in games played (158), runs scored (134), stolen bases (47) and total bases (279). He was a four-time All-Ivy League selection, earning first-team honors at shortstop in 1995 and 1996 and garnering second-team accolades at short in 1997 and 1998, while also being named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 1995.
A native of Claremont, California, Walkenbach is a 1998 graduate of the School of Hotel Administration. His wife, Beth, is a former Cornell field hockey standout and a graduate of Cornell University.
