Oklahoma Baseball: Reggie Willits Promoted to Associate Head Coach

Willits came to the Sooners in January as a volunteer assistant after playing with OU for the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

After wide speculation, the assumed replacement for Clay Van Hook on the Oklahoma baseball coaching staff has been made official.

Reggie Willits, who came to the Sooners as a volunteer assistant in January, has been promoted to fill the spot left by Van Hook after he left the program to become the head coach at UT-Arlington.

NEWS | @CoachJohnsonOU announced today that @Reggie_Willits has been promoted to associate head coach.#Sooners | #CHAOUS

— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) July 20, 2022

“Reggie did an outstanding job with our offense and outfielders this season, and played a large role in our team’s success,” head coach Skip Johnson said in a release. “We’re excited for him to join our staff full time and look forward to building on our offensive and team success from this season into the future.”

In the first year with Willits helping coach the OU offense, the Sooners hit .293 as a team scoring 7.5 runs and picking up 9.8 hits per game, ranking fourth in the country with 145 total steals.

Willits played at Oklahoma from 2002-2003, hitting with an outstanding .335 batting average and career totals of 144 hits, 105 runs scored, 28 doubles, 54 steals and 63 walks.

His 54 career steals are good for the 10th-most in program history with his .472 on-base percentage in 2003 being the highest of any player in the last 18 seasons.

Willits was then selected in the seventh round of the 2003 MLB Draft by the Los Angeles Angels, where he would go on to play for six seasons.

Prior to 2021, he served on the New York Yankees coaching staff under manager Aaron Boone coaching first base and serving as an outfield instructor.

After Van Hook’s departure, Willits seemed like the natural replacement with the team now making it official on Wednesday.

While the Sooners will be undergoing lots of change after having 11 players selected in this year’s draft, one piece of stability can now remain in place with Willits’ role with the team being elevated heading into next year.