NSA Announces David Mitchell as Varsity Baseball Head Coach

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - SUFFOLK, VA - August 3, 2011- Nansemond-Suffolk Academy (NSA) announced the appointment of David E. Mitchell as the Saints Varsity Baseball Head Coach today. 

A standout baseball player at Christopher Newport University, Mitchell was named an All-American, Southeast Region by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) in 1998. A 1998 CNU graduate, Mitchell was also named to the Academic All-Dixie and Virginia Collegiate All-State teams that same year. Mitchell earned a BS degree in Business Administration from CNU and worked in account sales management in Hampton Roads for 5 years. 

Mitchell began his coaching career in 2003 at Alliance Christian Schools in Portsmouth, Virginia. He spent the last eight years there as the Athletic Director, the Varsity Baseball Head Coach and as a Physical Education and Health Instructor. His overall coaching record at Alliance Christian was 123-47 and included three Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) Division III State Championships in 2004, 2005 and 2008. In 2003, his first year coaching, Mitchell led his players to a VISAA Division II State Championship. In 2008, Alliance Christian Schools named him Coach of the Decade.

Mitchell was named VISAA Division III State Coach of the Year twice, in 2005 and 2008, and VISAA Division II State Coach of the Year in 2003. The Portsmouth Sports Club honored him with its Abe Goldblatt Memorial High School Coach of the Year in 2008 and 2009. In 2003 and 2010, Mitchell was named Metro Conference Coach of the Year. During his tenure, twenty-one of his high school players have continued their careers at Division I, II and III colleges. Mitchell has also served as an Assistant Coach with the Peninsula Pilots since 2010, a Coastal Plain League team in Hampton, Virginia. He will continue to coach these college draft candidates during the summers.

During Mitchell’s tenure as Athletic Director at Alliance Christian, he headed a department that saw great growth in their athletics program including refurbishment of the baseball facility and the basketball gymnasium, development of a school Athletic Handbook and establishment of a school Athletic Hall of Fame. Mitchell also designed and coordinated construction of the school’s softball complex and nominated and actualized three athletes for Portsmouth Sports Club scholarships.

NSA Director of Athletics, Betty Jean Riddick ’72 stated, “We are very pleased to have a coach with David Mitchell’s experience join the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy family. As a former Athletic Director and instructor, Coach Mitchell will bring a wealth of knowledge to our baseball and athletic programs.”

Mitchell and his wife, Jamie, have been married for twelve years. They have a six-year-old son, Preston, and are expecting their second child this fall.

Coach David Mitchell replaces Coach Mike Curry ’98, who led the Saints as head coach for eight seasons, to the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools Championship and the state semi-finals in 2009.  Curry will remain at NSA as a physical education instructor in the Middle School and will focus on enhancing that program. Curry will also continue chairing the school-wide Blue and Gold competition, a new tradition which started in 2010 promoting school spirit through academic, athletic and civic activities. Coach Mitchell’s appointment coincides with NSA’s anniversary of forty years of Varsity Baseball. That athletic program was first added in 1971.