HALL OF FAME FEATURE: Eric Sibrizzi '10/14M

Eric Sibrizzi ‘10/14M was vacationing with his wife and kids at the beach when his phone rang this summer from an unexpected number.

“I saw ‘Averett’ pop up on my phone and my first thought was, ‘OK, I’m pretty sure I made my last payment on my bill last month,’” Sibrizzi joked. “I thought it might be about that, so I thought I should probably answer it.”

On the line was Meg Stevens, Averett vice president, director of athletics and campus operations. She was delivering the special news personally that Sibrizzi had been selected to the 2022 Averett Athletics Hall of Fame class, which will be inducted Oct. 8 during Homecoming.

“I was ecstatic and emotional,” said Sibrizzi, who played baseball for the Cougars from 2007-10 and served as a graduate assistant coach from 2010-14. “My wife was next to me, so she was able to hear what Meg was saying. After all that, we got off the phone and hugged and then hugged the kids. The first call was to my parents to let them know. They didn’t answer right away, but they called me back and I was able to tell them.”

Sibrizzi still glows when talking about his experience as a baseball player for the Cougars. He said his time at Averett as a student-athlete and later as a coach has helped shape him into who he is today as both a husband and father, a physical education teacher and a college baseball coach.

While in high school Sibrizzi said he wasn’t getting much interest from college coaches, and he entered his senior year with no offers. Yet, an interaction with then-Averett head coach Ed Fulton helped start Sibrizzi’s path toward Averett.

“I went to a camp down at Campbell University and Coach Fulton was there,” Sibrizzi recalled. “We made initial contact there and I talked to him throughout the year. I didn’t make a decision and a had a couple more offers throughout my senior year. Then I remember assistant coach George Fisher reaching out to me quite a bit. I really noticed they were invested in me.”

When the time came to make a decision, Sibrizzi sat down with his parents to figure out the best fit for him. Where might he play right away? Who would invest their time in him? Sibrizzi said Averett stood out, especially since the program seemed to be in a good place after winning the USA South Conference championship a few years earlier in 2003.

“I’ve always wanted to be that guy who wants to be in programs where I feel like I can make my mark,” Sibrizzi said. “That’s what I did. I decided to go to Averett. And here we are. It’s been a great decision for me and I met some of my best friends during that time. We still hang out and talk to each other. I just look back and I have so many great memories.”

A middle infielder from Clayton, North Carolina, Sibrizzi made an immediate impact for the Cougars on the diamond, where he earned the 2007 USA South Rookie of the Year award while being selected to the USA South First Team at second base his freshman season. It was the start to a standout career that saw Sibrizzi earn all-conference honors in three of his four years, get named to the 2007 USA South All-Tournament Team and the 2007 American Baseball Coaches association All-South Region Third Team as Averett set a program record for wins with 31.

Sibrizzi thrived that spring semester on the field, but he also made sure to focus on his academics so he could succeed off the field. He had learned a tough lesson during the fall semester of his freshman year.

“I was like most freshmen and was kind of immature,” he admitted. “You don’t really know how to manage your time. My grades were not very good my first semester at Averett. It was pretty scary coming home and having to tell my parents. I think I actually hid it from them until the very last day before I moved back for spring semester. My parents told me I needed to get it in order I was coming home. That was kind of a kick in the butt, so learning from that and learning how to manage my time and understand why I was at Averett was to be a student-athlete. I focused on my school work and managing my time well. Really, if you look at it, I was academic all-conference my sophomore, junior and senior year. I went through that struggle my first year and it prepared me for the next three.”

Sibrizzi certainly found success during the rest of his time at Averett. For his career, Sibrizzi had a .337 batting average with 93 RBIs, 118 runs scored and 21 doubles. At his time of induction, he ranks in the top 10 all-time in Averett baseball history in batting average, hits, runs scored and RBIs, and he's first all-time in walks and sacrifice bunts. In fact, during his senior season, he led the nation in NCAA Division III in sacrifice bunts with 18. He also was named Averett’s Dr. Tommy Foster Male Student-Athlete of the Year after his final season in spring 2010 — an award that is particularly special team. It is named after the founder of the Averett baseball program who also served as chair of Averett’s physical education department.

“I was able to meet him and even be in one of his classes before he retired,” Sibrizzi said. “I was able to see how much of an unbelieve person he is. So for the award to be named after him and to receive it, it was an unbelievable feeling.”

Foster wasn’t the only professor to make an impact on Sibrizzi.

“I had some great professors at Averett,” Sibrizzi said. “Dr. Richard Ferguson was one of my favorite professors that I ever had, and I took in a lot of what I learned in his sports psychology class as a player leading up into going into coaching. I could go on and on about the professors I had at Averett. It’s all shaped me into the coach I am today.”

Perhaps no one was a greater influence on Sibrizzi more than his baseball coaches at Averett. 

“Coach Fulton was someone you could always approach and someone you could go to to talk about baseball, about life, about things outside of the field,” Sibrizzi said. “I always feel like I bring that also as a coach. I feel like guys can approach me about things. I’ve taken what Coach Fulton and Coach Fisher both brought to the table for me.”

In fact, without Fulton’s influence, Sibrizzi may not have gotten into coaching at all.

“I really had no plans on going back to coach,” Sibrizzi said. “I went into that summer and didn’t get into the graduate school that I wanted to get into. Coach Fulton called me and said, ‘Hey, we have a graduate program. What are your thoughts?’ And I said I would love to and I came back.”

Sibrizzi was an assistant coach for the Cougars for four-plus seasons. He went on to coach at Wake Tech Community College as an assistant and head coach, then has been an assistant at William Peace University before landing as an assistant with Methodist University, where he enters his second season this spring.

“Getting into coaching, I can’t thank Coach Fisher and Coach Fulton enough for how they invested their time in me,” Sibrizzi said. “I learned how to coach from those experiences and learned how to manage a budget and manage a schedule. I learned so much throughout that time and it absolutely molded me into the person that I am right now.”

Sibrizzi fondly thinks back to his time at Averett as a student-athlete.

“I know baseball is a big portion of it, but a lot of my favorite memories were just hanging out with the guys at the apartment and road trips and hanging out on the bus and sharing stories,” he said. “Looking back on it now, that’s what I really miss the most is being able to spend that time with my teammates. Sometimes we kind of take it for granted.”

Playing for the Cougars when they traveled to play games at N.C. Wesleyan University or at Methodist were always highlights for him as well, given the proximity to his hometown.

“It always felt like a home game because I had my family there and friends there,” he said. “Sweeping N.C. Wesleyan at their place I think twice was a ‘Hey, we’re here’ type of thing. It kind of made a statement throughout the conference beginning my freshman year. I feel like we continued to make Averett relevant, and that’s what stands out to me.”

Ever since he got that special phone call this summer from Stevens, it’s brought back a lot of memories and feelings.

“This whole thing has been really emotional for me. You put so much time and work into being a good athlete and a good student,” Sibrizzi said. “I know my wife has always been super supportive. We were dating during that time. I can’t thank her enough for all the support she’s had for me. And then my parents were an unbelievable support system as a young kid. We moved a few times and I had to meet new friends, but they were always the consistent piece. I also had unbelievable siblings like an older sister to look up to and young siblings who I wanted them to see their older brother doing things and being successful so hopefully they could look up to me. Family is everything to me, and it has been awesome to share this with them once I got that call.”