Jordon Banfield is entering his fourth season as the Oakland Golden Grizzlies head baseball coach in 2024 and is sixth on the school’s all-time wins list with 78.
During his first three years at the helm, he has overseen an impressive turnaround and led the program to unprecedented success, winning a school-record 60 games over the 2022 and 2023 campaigns.
Reaching Championship Saturday of the Horizon League Tournament for the first time in program history in 2022, the Golden Grizzlies followed this up with a repeat trip to the conference title game in 2023, coming the closest Oakland ever has to an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Earning Horizon League Coach of the Year honors from his peers for the school’s breakout showing in 2022, Banfield’s student-athletes have taken care of business both in the classroom and on the field, totaling a league-high 12 selections on the Valeo All-Academic Team over the last two seasons and eight All-League honorees, including three First Teamers, during this same time frame.
Beginning his coaching career at Ann Arbor Huron High School as an assistant in 2005, Banfield’s first collegiate coaching position came as the hitting coach, infielders coach and recruiting coordinator with the UIS Prairie Stars for two seasons from 2014-15 and he followed this up with stints with the UTRGV Vaqueros from 2016-17 and the Mid-American Conference’s (MAC) Akron Zips from 2019-20, serving in the same capacity at both schools.
At all three of these collegiate stops, Banfield oversaw all aspects of the program’s recruiting, including evaluation, budget, organization, admissions, and student-athlete visits.
In 2018, taking a year off from on-field coaching, he was the Arizona Scouting Director for Prep Baseball Report (PBR).
Prior to entering the collegiate ranks, Banfield managed one of the nation’s top club programs, the Ann Arbor Travelers, while also serving as an area scout for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB).
An Ann Arbor native himself, Banfield attended the Greenhills School, earning Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association (MHSBCA) Division IV Second Team All-State honors as a senior in 2004, and played for the Ann Arbor Braves program that has produced multiple Major League players.
Attending the University of Michigan, he earned his bachelor’s degree in Sport Management in 2008.
