Head Coach Jason Beck came to Southeastern in August 2004 and will enter his 12th season as the head coach of the Southeastern baseball program in the Fall of 2015.
The 2014 season marked the first Sun Conference Championship in program history, going 4-0 in the tournament and recording back-to-back shutout wins over regular season champion Embry-Riddle 2-0 and 3-0 to claim the title.
The conference title gave the Fire their first bid to the NAIA National Tournament, where they competed in the Lawrenceville, Georgia Opening Round bracket. The Fire went 2-2, falling twice to the hosts Georgia Gwinnett, and ending their season 46-16.
The 2011 season was truly historic for Beck and the Fire. Beck won his 400th career game when Billy Glessner hit a walk-off RBI single versus Edward Waters College on February 19 in Lakeland.
“Four hundred means a lot. I mean that is a lot of games,” said Beck reflecting on the milestone. “I have definitely had a lot of great players and great coaches around me. As coaches, we do not get on the field. The players and coaches helped me get here.”
The Fire set a school record, with a 16-game home winning streak in 2011, which helped them make their first-ever appearance in the NAIA National Rankings. The Fire jumped into the national polls at No. 23 in late March before moving up two spots to No. 21, where they stayed for the next three weeks.
In just their second season in The Sun Conference, SEU posted a 15–12 conference record and earned the program’s first spot in the conference tournament. The Fire was the tournament’s No. 3 seed overall and was eventually eliminated from the tournament by Embry-Riddle University, who was ranked No. 1 in the nation at the time.
Southeastern then made even more school history by winning the NCCAA D-I South Region Tournament. It was the program’s first D-I South Region title, and SEU went onto earn the No. 1 overall seed in the NCCAA D-I National Tournament. Southeastern finished ranked No. 3 in the nation for the second consecutive season and ended the year with a 43–20–1 mark.
Beck now has a career record of 555–342–1 and, in ten seasons with the Fire, has a 422–220–1 record. He has also had seven 40-win seasons in ten years at Southeastern.
In his first five years at Southeastern, Beck guided the Fire to four NCCAA II National Championships. From 2005–2009, while competing in the NCCAA D-II South Region, Beck finished with an 82–12 career record with four South Region titles. During this span, Southeastern had a remarkable 21–2 record in the NCCAA D-II National Tournament.
Beck came to Southeastern from Nyack College in Nyack, New York. He played for Nyack College from 1989 to 1992, where he starred as a pitcher and at first base and was named team captain his sophomore year. After leaving Nyack, he joined the workforce of THK America as a district manager. It was through this experience that he learned the business and interpersonal skills needed to be a head baseball coach on the college level.
After 10 years in the corporate world, he felt the Lord’s calling to take on a full-time job working with young Christian men, using baseball as his ministry. After Beck worked at his alma mater for a few years, the Lord blessed him with the opportunity to apply for the vacant coaching job at Southeastern. Beck accumulated a 134–125 record at Nyack, winning the NCAA Division II Conference Championship in 2004.
Beck brought high expectations to the Southeastern baseball program, and his presence is being felt throughout the Southeastern athletic community. He is also an outstanding recruiter because of his many relationships with high school coaches throughout the country, particularly in Florida. These relationships enable him to try to draw many of the outstanding Florida prospects to Lakeland, continually benefiting the quality of the Southeastern baseball program.
Beck resides in Lakeland with his wife, Deborah, and their two children, Gavin and Kelsey.
