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Message From Coach Bolt:
“The NEBRASKA BASEBALL ACADEMY is passionate about teaching the game of baseball and passing our knowledge on to the next generation of ballplayers. The Academy will provide detailed instruction from highly trained and qualified coaches and will do so in a fun and positive manner. Our goal for each session is for our players to take at least ONE piece of advice and apply it to their game. We feel if players can do that enough, over a period of time, it really adds up! We truly want to make a positive impact on all players on and off the field!”
Will Bolt was named the 24th head coach of the Nebraska Baseball program on June 14, 2019. He brings 16 years of coaching experience to the Nebraska program, including five seasons on the Husker baseball staff and four years as a head coach at Texarkana College. Bolt returns to Lincoln after spending the past five seasons on the Texas A & M staff where he helped the Aggies to five straight NCAA regional appearances and a trip to the 2017 College World Series.
Coach Bolt serves as the Manager of the Nebraska Baseball Academy and knows the importance of a solid instructional setting for the participants that register for any of the camps offered through the Nebraska Baseball Academy.
A veteran of college baseball with 32 years of experience, Childress is no stranger to Lincoln, as he served as an assistant coach at Nebraska from 1998 to 2002 and as associate head coach from 2003 to 2005 prior to his director of player development role in the last two seasons.
Prior to his return to Lincoln, Childress spent 16 seasons as the head coach at Texas A&M. He led the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament a school-record 13 consecutive times (2007-19), including six regional titles and a pair of trips to the College World Series in 2011 and 2017. Childress, who posted a 622-336-3 record with the Aggies, won two regular-season conference titles and four conference tournament championships during his stint at Texas A&M.
Texas A&M’s pitching staff set a school record with 673 strikeouts in 2019. They led the NCAA in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.33), ranked second in strikeouts per nine innings (10.9), third in ERA (3.21) and eighth in WHIP (1.21).
During his eight seasons on staff in his first stint at Nebraska, the Huskers produced five of the top six single-season strikeout totals in school history, including a school-record 538 strikeouts in 2005, while issuing fewer than three walks per game in his final five seasons in Lincoln. The Huskers went to the NCAA Tournament six times in a seven-year span, including three CWS appearances. The Big Red won three regular-season Big 12 titles (2001, 2003 and 2005) and four Big 12 Tournaments (1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005).
Under his tutelage, 79 pitchers were drafted or signed as free agents during his time at Nebraska and Texas A&M. Childress’ pitching staffs have finished in the top 15 in the country in ERA eight times since 2000, including top three finishes on three occasions. Five of his pitching staffs have finished in the top 25 nationally in strikeouts per nine innings since 2010, including four times in the top 10.
Before his first stint at Nebraska, Childress served as an assistant coach at Northwestern State from 1995 to 1997 after stops at Texarkana College and Northwood. He coached former major leaguer Brian Lawrence, who became the first Demon baseball player to reach the Major Leagues since 1954.
Childress graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Northwood in 1990, earned a master’s degree of science from East Texas State (now TAMU-Commerce) in 1994. He and his wife Amanda have a daughter, Hannah, and a son, Maxwell.
Lance Harvell enters his third year as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Nebraska in 2022, having joined the staff in June 2019. Harvell coaches hitters and outfielders, while also serving as the Huskers’ third-base coach.
The Huskers hit a Big Ten-best .279 in 2021, bolstered by three players in the league's top 25 for batting average: Jaxon Hallmark (.342), Max Anderson (.332) and Luke Roskam (.307). Hallmark, an outfielder, picked up first-team All-Big Ten honors. Nebraska went on to finish 34-14, captured the Big Ten regular-season championship and appeared in an NCAA Regional Final.
Harvell has spearheaded the Huskers' recruiting efforts, and their 15-member 2021 recruiting class, which included a trio of top-200 prospects, was ranked 20th by Perfect Game, 21st by Baseball America and 36th by Collegiate Baseball.
Harvell’s first season in Lincoln was cut short after 15 games in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. NU’s offense was hitting .281 and had 17 home runs, while averaging 6.8 runs per game.
Prior to coming to Lincoln, Harvell spent five seasons at Sam Houston State as the team’s assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under Matt Deggs. During that span, the Bearkats captured four Southland Conference regular-season titles and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, Harvell established himself as the top recruiting coordinator in the Southland Conference by D1Baseball.com.
In 2019, Sam Houston State went 31-25 and won the Southland Conference with a 20-10 mark in league play. Hayden Wesneski, Jordan Cannon, Nick Mikolajchak and Hunter Hearn were each selected in the 2019 MLB Draft after the season. In addition, Colton Cowser was named Southland Hitter of the Year and was a standout on Team USA.
In 2018, the Bearkats boasted a 39-20 mark overall, which included a 24-6 record in conference play, as they won the regular-season league crown.
Sam Houston State enjoyed a Division I program-record 44-win season in 2017 to advance to its first-ever NCAA Super Regional. The 2017 squad finished nationally ranked in all six polls, checking in at No. 14 (Collegiate Baseball), No. 16 (NCBWA), No. 18 (D1 Baseball), No. 19 (USA Today Coaches), No. 20 (Baseball America) and No. 22 (Perfect Game).
The Bearkats stormed through the Southland Conference Tournament with four consecutive wins to capture the crown and earn the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. In the Lubbock Regional, the team knocked off No. 5 Texas Tech twice and won both of its games against 16th-ranked Arizona to earn a spot in the Tallahassee Super Regional.
Heath Donica earned All-America honors and Southland Pitcher of the Year in 2017, while Wesneski took home Freshman All-America accolades and Southland Freshman-of-the-Year recognition. Sam Houston State finished the 2017 regular season as one of two teams nationally ranked in the top-25 for both ERA (3.58) and batting average.
In 2016, the Bearkats swept the Southland regular-season and Tournament titles to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Sam Houston State, which welcomed 19 freshmen and 29 newcomers, went 42-22 overall and posted a 24-6 mark in conference play.
In 2015, Sam Houston State won 31 games and made it to the championship game of the Southland Tournament.
Harvell spent two years as the volunteer assistant at Louisiana in 2013 and 2014. Harvell helped guide the Ragin’ Cajuns to national prominence and the best offense in the country two straight years. The 2014 team finished the season with a 58-10 record, the third-best record in NCAA history, and the best record and most wins in school and Sun Belt Conference history.
At the end of the regular season the Cajuns were the consensus No. 1 team by every poll, earned the No. 6 national seed, had a school-record seven players taken in the MLB draft and led the country with three first-team All-Americans. The Cajuns offense finished ranked in the top three nationally in 26 of the 29 offensive categories.
Along the way to winning the Sun Belt regular-season and tournament championships, several Cajun players earned postseason recognition, including first-team All-American Jace Conrad, who also earned Sun Belt Conference Player-of-the-Year honors before being selected in the 13th round of the MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays. Blake Trahan and Caleb Adams (who also played for Harvell at Texarkana) also garnered first-team All-America accolades.
Harvell spent three years at Texarkana College, including two under Bolt, as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 2010 to 2012. In his time at Texarkana, the Bulldogs produced some of the best offenses in their conference and region in terms of production, leading the conference in batting in 2011 and 2012. Under his tutelage, Texarkana never finished lower than second in team batting and more than 25 position players moved on to play Division I baseball.
In 2011 and 2012, Texarkana led the conference in batting average, hits, runs scored, stolen bases, doubles, and triples, hitting .310 and .314 respectively. In 2010, the Bulldogs won the conference championship and finished in the top four of every major offensive category.
Harvell spent the 2008 and 2009 seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Texas A&M. During the 2009 season, he was the team’s strength and conditioning coach. In 2008, he served as the pitching assistant, helping the Aggies to a Big 12 regular-season crown, an NCAA Regional title and an NCAA Super Regional berth.
During his playing days, Harvell was an all-conference and All-Region catcher at Richland Community College in Dallas. In 2003 and 2004, he led his team to back-to-back NJCAA national titles. Harvell walked on at Texas A&M in 2005 and 2006 as a catcher.
Harvell graduated from Texas A&M in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in sport management and earned his master’s degree in the same field in 2009. He and his wife Courtney have two sons, Bodie and Dexter, and a daughter, Ellie.
Sirianni joins the Huskers with 13 years of experience coaching college baseball after spending the previous four seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Wichita State.
Sirianni comes to Lincoln after spearheading two of the best recruiting classes in Wichita State baseball history with a 32nd-ranked class in 2021 and 26th-ranked class in 2022 by Perfect Game.
During his four seasons at Wichita State, Sirianni coached a third-team All-American, a freshman All-American, a John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Finalist and 17 all-conference selections. In his inaugural campaign as the Shockers’ assistant coach, he helped Wichita State to a 13-2 record before the season ended due to COVID-19, which included the program’s longest winning streak since 2008 of 12 games.
Sirianni was a head coach for three seasons at Regis from 2017 to 2019. He made an immediate impact with the Rangers, as Regis recorded their first winning season in five years in the second season under Sirianni. Sirianni coached the 2018 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and had 20 all-conference selections in his three seasons with the Rangers.
Before his time at Regis, Sirianni spent two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach for the Shockers in his first stop at Wichita State. He assisted the offense and coached three Freshman All-Americans, two all-region selections, one Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year, eight all-conference performers and nine MLB Draft picks.
From 2011 to 2014, Sirianni was the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Newman (Kan.). He helped the Jets to two conference tournament appearances and the highest conference finish in school history. Under his lead, the Newman offense set several school records, and the Jets had six Gold Glove winners, 14 all-conference position players and the Freshman of the Year.
Prior to coaching at Newman, he had stints with Valley View High School in Arkansas, Iowa Western Community College, Arkansas State and the Cleveland Guardians.
Sirianni was a two-year starter at Arkansas State in 2004-05 and set the single-season record for runs scored in 2004. Before his time at Arkansas State, Sirianni played two seasons at Creighton from 2002 to 2003.
Sirianni’s father, John, was the Athletic Director at Division III Simpson College (Iowa) for 28 years, spending 20 seasons as the school’s head baseball coach. His brother, Jay, played at Nebraska in 1996-99 and has been the head coach at Sam Houston since 2020.
Sirianni graduated with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Arkansas State in 2006, and earned a master’s degree in health, physical education and recreation from Emporia State in 2017. He and his wife Mandy have three daughters, Ava, Allie and Adalyn.
Behrens joins the Huskers with four years of coaching experience, including the last two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach at Wichita State.
With the Shockers, Behrens worked with the hitters, catchers and outfielders while serving as camp coordinator and creating scouting reports of opponents.
Prior to Wichita State, he had a brief stint as an assistant coach at Point Lomo Nazarene, where he assisted in recruiting and coached the infielders and hitters.
Behrens was a graduate assistant coach and director of operations at Central Missouri for two seasons, helping the Mules to a national runner-up finish with a 46-8 overall record in 2021.
Working primarily with the hitters at UCM, Behrens coached an offense that ranked top-10 nationally in many offensive categories, including batting average, hits, home runs, runs, slugging percentage, stolen bases and hit by pitch. The Mules won the 2021 MIAA regular-season and tournament titles and recorded a 15-game win streak to clinch their DII World Series berth.
In Behrens’ two seasons with the Mules, Central Missouri went 66-11, producing three All-Americans, five all-region hitters and seven all-conference players. UCM was off to a 20-3 start in 2020 before the remainder of the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Behrens played his first two seasons at Kansas City Kansas Community College, where he earned second-team all-conference recognition and won a Region XI Gold Glove. Behrens finished his playing career at Lindenwood, hitting .304 in 73 career games. As a junior in 2017, he helped the Lions to their first-ever appearance in the DII World Series.
Behrens began his coaching career the following year as an assistant at Lincoln Southwest High School, where he was an all-state performer as a player.
A native of Lincoln, Neb., Behrens earned his bachelor’s degree in historical studies from Lindenwood University and holds a master’s degree in sports management from Central Missouri in 2021. He and his wife, Ashley, reside in Lincoln.
Renee is beginning her 36th year as Administrative Assistant for the Nebraska Baseball program. Renee also serves as the Academy Coordinator and assists with many day-to-day operations of the Academy. If you have any questions regarding the Nebraska Baseball Academy, please contact Renee.
