Steve Little-2012
Jackson High School/Olentangy High School
Steve Little is a past president for the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association. He begins his eleventh season at Olentangy High School in Columbus, Ohio after spending the previous thirteen years as Head Coach of Jackson High School in the Southeast District.
In thirteen seasons at Jackson High School, he compiled an overall record of 191-99, winning two league championships, eight sectional championships, and had five teams ranked in the top ten in the State Coaches Poll. Little was named Southeast East district Coach of the Year five times, and in 1993 was selected to coach in the Mizuno All-Ohio Series.
From 1996-2001, Little was a coach for Team Ohio, which features the best seniors in the state, who compete in the Sun-Belt Classic in Oklahoma. In 2006 and 2007 he was Head Coach of the Jr. Team that competed in the Lone Star Classis in College Station in Texas.
In 2001, Little was selected by USA Baseball to be a trials coach for USA Youth National Team in Houston, Texas; where the USA Team went on to win the gold medal in the Pan Am games in Vericruz, Mexico.
In 2002, Little returned to USA Baseball as site manager for the National Youth Team in Jupiter, Florida. Also in 2002, Coach Little began his first season as Head Coach of Olentangy High School, where he has led them to three Ohio Capital Conference league championships, two district championships, three district runner-ups, one regional championship, and in 2006, finished as Division I State Runner-Up.
The 2006 team finished with a 30-3 record overall setting a school record for the number of wins and finished ranked #1 in the State and was ranked as high as 29th in the Nation (BCA /Baseball of America Poll). After the season, Little was named League, District, State and the National Federation of Athletic Association’s National Coach of the Year and once again was selected to coach in the Mizuno All-Ohio Series.
While at Olentangy, his teams are 173-95, overall. He has been named OCC Coach of the Year three times, District Coach of the Year three times and Division I State Coach of the Year. In twenty-three seasons as a high school Head Coach, he has compiled a 364-194 record overall and has coached high school baseball for the past 28 years.
In 2009 Little was selected to be on the BCA -National High Schools , Coach of the Yr. and Field of the Yr. committees,which he still serves on.
While he has had great success none of it would have been possible without the help of some great coaches that have helped him along the way, coaches like John Tipton (Portsmouth H.S.), Tim Saunders, (Dublin Coffman H.S.), Roger Ingles, (Ohio Wesleyan University) and Mike O’Reilly (Sylvania Southview) to name a few. He is also most proud of, in his 23 seasons as a head coach, he has had seven assistant coaches go on and become Head Coaches.
In June of 2011, Coach Little was inducted into the Southeast District Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Coach Little is a 1984 graduate of the University of Rio Grande where he earned four varsity letters in baseball. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Masters Degree in Sports Administration from the United States Sports Academy in Alabama. Coach Little presently teaches Health and Physical Education at Olentangy High School in Columbus, Ohio. He has one daughter Kelli Little-Claytor who was just married this past July.