The longest tenured baseball coach in NCAA Division I history, the second-longest active tenured baseball coach at any level, and the third longest tenured baseball coach in NCAA history as a whole, Tony Rossi defined Siena Baseball for five-and-a-half decades, and has been a part of the Siena community since the 1960’s. The winningest coach in coach in both Siena College and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference history, he boasted 1936 career victories from 1970-2023, is the only MAAC Coach in any sport to win over 900 contests.
Rossi is tied for second all-time in NCAA Baseball history in seasons coached along with former Division II Bentley Head Coach Bob DeFelice, who retired following the 2022 season. Former Division III coach Gordie Gillespie (59 seasons) is the only head baseball coach at any NCAA level to have ever coached longer than Rossi.
A six-time MAAC Coach of the year (1991, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2005), Rossi led Siena to each of the program’s five MAAC Tournament Championships (1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2014) as well as NCAA Tournament appearances in 1999 & 2014. Rossi has developed nearly 60 student athletes who have signed professional baseball contracts, including three (Gary Holle ’77, HOF ‘83, Tim Christman ’98, HOF’ ’04, and John Lannan ’06, HOF ‘11) who have reached the highest level. Rossi has also coached six MAAC Player of the Year and six MAAC Rookie of the Year honorees.
He began his coaching career in Loudonville as a 23-year-old JV lacrosse coach in 1967 and assumed baseball head coaching duties in 1970. In 1978, he guided Siena from Division II to Division I status. Working as a part-time coach and without athletic grants for much of his early career, Rossi developed the program from a Division II team with 10 players to a championship Division I program with 24 scholarship student athletes. Over the past five-plus decades, he has been able to recruit against the top programs in the country. Rossi helped Dan Paolini lead the nation in home runs per-game and become the first player in program history to earn All-American status in 2010.
Rossi piloted Siena to 20 20-win seasons since 1985 and a program record six straight from 2013-18. On three occasions Rossi led the Saints to 30 or more victories, highlighted by a program record 34 wins in 1999. Overall, 14 of Rossi’s players (Chris Alesio, ’89, HOF ’14; Bob Bladel ’80, HOF ’91; Tim Christman ’98, HOF’ 04; Khris Clemens ’84, HOF ’94; Todd Donovan ’03, HOF ’10; Ryan Finn ’02, HOF ‘10; Ken Hayner ’82, HOF ’91; Gary Holle ‘77, HOF ’83; Jim Howard ’84, HOF ’91; John Lannan ’06, HOF ’11; Dave Pahucki ’02, HOF ’15; Dave Smith ’79, HOF ’87; Craig Turnbull ’87, HOF ’99; Paul Wilders ’96, HOF ’03) have joined him in the Siena Athletics Hall of Fame.
In addition to serving as Siena’s head baseball coach, Rossi simultaneously spent 34 years teaching mathematics in the Guilderland school district before retiring in 1999. He then sent nearly a decade as Siena’s Assistant Athletic Director. Rossi has also elected to the Albany Twilight League Hall of Fame in 1985 and the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011.
