Softball
Craig Snider
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- wsnider@athletics.tamu.edu
SNIDER UP CLOSE
PERSONAL
- Hometown: Franklin, Kentucky
- Alma Mater: Centenary, 2004
COACHING HISTORY
- 2001-2003: Lindsey Wilson College (assistant coach)
- 2004-2005: Centenary (assistant coach)
- 2005-2006: Oklahoma (graduate assistant coach)
- 2007-2010: SFA (assistant coach)
- 2011-2019: Florida State (assistant coach)
- 2020-: Texas A&M (assistant coach)
BY THE NUMBERS
- 1 WCWS National Championship (2018)
- 3 WCWS Appearances (2014, 2016, 2018)
- 9 NPF Draftees
- 7 Conference Player of the Year honors
- 19 All-Americans
- 27 All-Region Selections
- 52 All-Conference Selections
Twenty-year coaching veteran and 2018 NCAA National Champion Craig Snider enters his third season as an assistant coach at Texas A&M in 2022. Snider serves as the Aggies’ hitting coach and recruiting coordinator.
Snider came to Aggieland after an eight-year stint at Florida State in which he helped lead the Seminoles to the 2018 National Championship, seven NCAA Super Regional trips, three Women’s College World Series appearances and won 11 ACC regular season and conference tournament championships.
In his first full season with the Aggies in 2021, Snider was pivotal in the Texas A&M offense, with the Maroon & White belting 70 home runs as team, ranking fifth in program history in a single season. Haley Lee capped of her junior campaign with 25 home runs, setting A&M’s single season record, as well as amassing a .955 slugging percentage, en route to another A&M single-season record. Lee’s 25 home runs placed her tied for first in the SEC and tied for third in the nation, while garnering NFCA All-American Third Team Honors.
Snider made an apparent offensive impact since his arrival in Aggieland in 2020. Under his guidance the Maroon & White capped the shortened 2020 season with 26 home runs, 8 triples and 51 doubles. The Aggies held onto a massive .516 slugging percentage, while registering a .392 on-base clip. Makinzy Herzog led the offensive mod with a team high .415 batting average. The left-hander belted six home runs and knocked in 17. Her 11 doubles ranked her second on the team and eighth in the nation. Freshman Jourdyn Campbell finished her rookie campaign with a .329 batting average on 23 career hits. She ranked second in the nation with her 13 doubles and finished eighth in doubles per game.
Under Snider’s tutelage in 2019, the Seminole offense set school records for home runs (105), batting average (.330) and RBI (423), while ranking second in school history in doubles (103) and runs (454). Seven players recorded 10-or-more home runs with six tallying at least 40 RBI.
In 2018, Snider, along with head coach Lonni Alameda and assistant coach Travis Wilson were named the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s National Coaching Staff of the Year after leading Florida State to the program’s first national championship. Snider’s record-setting offense was led by NFCA All-American Jessie Warren, who topped the team with a .404 batting average, 21 home runs and 70 RBI. During their run at the Women’s College World Series, all nine spots in the batting order had at least one extra-base hit.
Florida State matched its conference record with six All-ACC First Team members in 2017, as the Seminoles finished the season with a perfect 24-0 record in ACC play and became just the third school in a Power 5 conference to finish the conference slate unbeaten.
Warren set the Florida State career home runs record in 2017, passing Maddie O’Brien’s mark of 55 in just her third season and earned the second NFCA All-American honor of her career. The Seminoles earned their first-ever No. 1 ranking in the NFCA poll and ended the year with a 55-8-1 record, marking the third time in the last four years that Florida State has reached the 50-win plateau.
Behind a pair of All-American hitters, Alex Powers and Warren, the Seminoles finished 2016 in the top 10 nationally in on-base percentage, scoring, stolen bases and winning percentage. Florida State posted a 21-2 ledger in the ACC and ended the year in Oklahoma City with a 55-10 record.
In 2015, the Seminoles were among the top three in the conference in eight offensive categories and led the ACC with 18 triples. The Seminoles were carried offensively by a pair of freshmen, Warren and Morgan Klaevemann. Warren finished with 19 home runs and 57 RBI as she earned ACC Freshman of the Year honors, while Klaevemann recorded a 26-game hitting streak – second-longest in Florida State history and No. 24 all-time in NCAA history – and led the team with a .393 batting average.
Snider and the offense were an enormous part of the 2014 resurgence of Florida State Softball onto the national scene. The Seminoles posted a 55-9 record and won the school’s 12th ACC Championship and advanced to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since 2004.
The 2014 offense set several new records including runs scored (400), home runs (65), extra-base hits (168), RBI (363), walks (318) and slugging percentage (.493). The Seminoles finished with a .304 batting average, which was the first time since 1995 that the team had finished with a mark above .300. Maddie O’Brien set school records in home runs (24), walks (56), RBI (83) and slugging percentage (.942) on her way to being a NFCA First Team All-American and the ACC Player of the Year.
Snider’s 2013 offense set school marks for home runs (60), RBIs (316) and slugging percentage (.476). The Seminoles posted a .292 batting average and recorded 156 extra-base hits, just two shy of the program record at the time.
Arriving in the summer of 2011, Snider helped foster a winning attitude and developed tremendous camaraderie with student-athletes and recruits immediately. He worked actively to improve the individual performances of several student-athletes in the 2012 season, helping players such as Briana Hamilton, Tiffani Brown, Kirstin Austin and others record banner years. Hamilton and Brown earned selections to the All-ACC First Team for the first time in their careers, while Austin’s noticeable improvement at the plate gave the Seminoles an enormous spark throughout the year.
Prior to his time in Tallahassee, Snider served as an assistant coach at Stephen F. Austin. He took over as hitting coach in 2007 following a season in which the Ladyjacks finished with a .229 batting average. Over the next three seasons, SFA batted .274 (2008), .275 (2009) and .278 (2010). He also led the team to sharp spikes in home runs, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, as SFA recorded 43 round-trippers in Snider’s first season after hitting just 16 the season before.
At SFA, Snider took on several roles as he devised hitting and defensive workouts during the fall, directed all aspects of camps, developed team-building exercises, served as a fundraising arm, handled much of the recruiting and recruiting databases and oversaw his student-athletes’ academic progress.
Snider previously assisted in producing three All-Americans at Oklahoma from 2005-06, and played a large role in creating scouting reports as a graduate assistant coach for the Sooners. At his alma mater of Centenary, he helped lead the school to two Mid-Con Tournament championships while providing analysis for recruiting, hitting, fielding and putting together chart systems. His versatility also included field maintenance and even putting together the team’s highlight videos in 2004 and 2005.
At Lindsey Wilson College from 2001-03, Snider guided the team to batting averages above .300 every season. He was heavily involved in the recruiting process as an assistant coach and oversaw all summer camps.
Snider has a daughter, Riley, and a son, Henry.