Denning retires as UST coach

St. Thomas will defend its championship without its head coach. Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com

"I love it, but I'm just not physically up to it."

That was how Dennis Denning summed up his decision to retire from the head coaching position at St. Thomas, coming more than six months after his team won its second Division III national championship. Denning announced his retirement on Tuesday, Dec. 15, in a news conference on the school's campus in St. Paul, Minn.

Under Denning, the Tommies were 522-157 (.769) and 250-50 in MIAC regular-season games (.833). St. Thomas made the NCAA playoffs in 14 of Denning's 15 seasons, highlighted by the 2001 and 2009 national championships and second-place national finishes in both 1999 and 2000.

St. Thomas won the 2009 championship in dramatic fashion, coming out of the losers bracket to beat Wooster twice, once in extra innings, to hoist Walnut and Bronze.  

But despite the program's current position on top of the Division III baseball world, Denning said that was not part of his motivation for stepping down.

"I told them the most important thing is not winning the big championship," Denning said. "The most important thing for us is the path to get there."

Denning still likes his team's chances, with or without him at the helm.

"We have a good team coming back, a really good team coming back. Plus every kid is a first-class kid too. If I was a sharp person, I'd probably come back this year. I'm going to miss coaching them.

"I realize that I do not have the right energy that I expect of myself and that they deserve, the players deserve, so I made the decision that no, I'm not coming back."