Jimmy Ricklefsen has been with the McNeese baseball program for 23 total years heading into 2025 as a player, graduate assistant, assistant coach, assistant head coach and head coach. He returned home in 2016 to rejoin the Cowboys' staff after spending the previous 19 years on the staff at Lamar. He serves as Recruiting Coordinator, Alumni Relations, Infield Coach, and First Base Coach while assisting with hitters. Ricklefsen was promoted to assistant head coach in August 2023.
Ricklefsen has a storied past as he has been a baseball coach in the Southland Conference for 38 years, the most years in conference history. As a head coach, he lead the McNeese program to their most successful single season in program history going 41-16 in 1995. He has been apart of every single McNeese championship winning team with the exceptions being 2000 and 2006.
Before returning home to McNeese, Ricklefsen served 19 years on the staff at Lamar, including six as an associate head coach, helped guide the Cardinals to two conference championships, two league tournament titles and six NCAA Regionals appearances. He was the recruiting coordinator in addition to coaching third base, working with the infielders, defensive alignment and assisting with the hitters. Off the field, Ricklefsen served as a professor in the Kinesiology department for 17 years.
Ricklefsen's Accomplishments:
2022 Southland Conference Champions
2021 Southland Conference Tournament Champion
2021 NCAA Fort Worth (TCU) Regional Appearance
2019 Southland Conference Tournament Champion
2019 NCAA Nashville (Vanderbilt) Regional Appearance
2017 Southland Conference Champions
1993 Southland Conference Champions
1993 NCAA Central (Texas A&M) Regional Appearance
1988 Southland Conference Champions
1988 NCAA Midwest (Oklahoma State) Regional Appearance
(At McNeese)
2010 Southland Conference Tournament Champion
2010 NCAA Fort Worth (TCU) Regional Appearance
2004 Southland Conference Champions
2004 Southland Conference Tournament Champions
2004 NCAA Austin (Texas) Regional Appearance
2003 Southland Conference Champions
2003 NCAA Austin (Texas) Regional Appearance
2002 Southland Conference Tournament Champion
2002 NCAA Houston (Rice) Regional Appearance
(At Lamar)
In his time at both McNeese and Lamar, he recruited and coached:
• 108 players who were selected in the MLB Amateur Draft
• 12 Major League Baseball Players
• 24 All-Americans
• 184 All-Conference players
• Six SLC Players of the Year
• Seven SLC Hitters of the Year
• Nine SLC Pitchers of the Year
• Six SLC Newcomers of the Year
• Nine players on the 90's Southland Conference All-Decade Team, and 11 players on the '00 team.
Ricklefsen is a 1986 McNeese graduate and was an assistant coach under the legendary late Tony Robichaux from 1987-94 helping the Cowboys to their first-ever Southland Conference championship in 1988 and two NCAA Regionals appearances (1988, 1993).
After spending seven seasons as an assistant coach under Robichaux (1988-94) and one as a graduate assistant under Nolan Viator (1987), Ricklefsen was named McNeese’s head coach prior to the 1995 season. He posted an 81-79 record including tying the school record for wins in a season with 41 during the 1995 campaign. The Cowboys’ 41-16 record and .719 winning percentage in one year stands as a school record.
As a player for the Cowboys from 1984-86, he played both the infield and outfield and hit .333 his senior season. He also led the Cowboys in stolen bases for two seasons and hit 11 career home runs.
He played for College Baseball Hall of Fame member and former Rice University head baseball coach Wayne Graham at San Jacinto Junior College before transferring to McNeese.
Ricklefsen, a native of Houston, served three years on the NCAA’s Southern Region At-Large Search Advisory Baseball Committee, which recommends at-large teams to be selected to play in the NCAA Regionals.
He became one of 450 coaches in the country to be inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) as a lifetime member, the award induction ceremony took place on January 7, 2022. He is a 36-year member of the organization.
Ricklefsen and his wife Andrea have a daughter, Lauren. Lauren is married to Garrett Buller and the couple have three children, son Hudson Lane and daughters Adalynn Grace and Ella James.
The Rickelfsen File:
McNeese - Assistant Head Coach (2023-Present)
McNeese - Assistant Coach (2016-2023)
Lamar - Associate Head Coach (2010-2015)
Lamar - Assistant Coach (1998-2010)
McNeese - Head Coach (1995-1997)
McNeese - Assistant Coach (1988-1994)
McNeese - Graduate Assistant (1987)
