Most of Mike Dickson’s life has been all about baseball, and I don’t think he would have it any other way. When Mike was playing baseball for Rowan University from 1997-2000, calling him a standout player would have been an understatement. In 1999 and 2000, he was selected as a senior captain, and during those years he was chosen to the ABCA All America Second Team, and Player of The Year in the NJAC division. During his years serving as team captain, he also set records for hits in a season and career, doubles for a career, runs in a season, and runs per game. In the 20 years that have passed since then, unfortunately those records have since been eclipsed, but nevertheless it’s extremely impressive that he held all those records at some point. In 2018, Mike was honored for his time with the Profs as a player, and was inducted into the Rowan University Athletics Hall of Fame.

Once Mike’s playing career had come to end, he decided his next best move would be to start coaching. His coaching career began in 2001 at Gloucester Catholic High School. Then later that year he joined the coaching staff at Rowan and helped them go 96-32, win two NJAC titles, and advance to the Division III World Series in 2004. Then in 2006 he started his head coaching career when he took the job at RCGC. His personal excellence continued as a head coach at RCGC, where he finished with a record of 360-88 over nine seasons. During those nine seasons he led 2 of the most historically successful RCGC teams; the 2013 team went 49-3 and captured the school’s seventh national title, and Dickson ended up receiving the Skip Bertman National Coach of the Year from the College Baseball Hall of Fame. The 2010 team was just as historic, posting a record of 43-2 which was the highest single season winning percentage in NJCAA Division III history en route to another national championship. During his nine seasons as the head coach, he was named District Coach of the Year six times. Then in 2014 there was an opening at head coach for the Rowan team, and Mike was named as only the 10th head baseball coach in Rowan’s history.

While doing my research for this story, I started to realize a theme that was emerging. Wherever Mike Dickson coaches or plays, success usually follows. So in 2014 when Mike Dickson became head coach for Rowan University, I’m sure he expected nothing else but excellence. Entering his 6th year as the Head Coach of the Profs, he has led the Rowan Men’s Baseball Team to 3 appearances in the NCAA Division II Champion Tournament, and one NJAC championship win in 2018. Throughout his 6 years, he has helped get 5 of his previous players professional contracts. His overall record as a head coach really tells the story. In 14 total years of coaching Mike has won 505 games and only lost 162. This is as impressive as any of his career accolades and it’s very clear why he got the job at Rowan.

With the 2020 season officially canceled, I decided it would be a good time to talk to Mike and get his perspective on the situation, and how he sees the next few months playing out. In this virtual interview we discussed how he’s been transitioning in these strange times, and also a little bit about how he sees the balance between academics and athletics, and why he thinks that balance is so crucial for young collegiate athletes. We also briefly spoke about his early career, and how he has gotten to where he is now. I hope you can take something from this story, and the audio embedded below is an audio profile of Mike, and his personal view on these topics. Check out my Twitter for future posts!