Adding to his many awards and accolades, Coach Rhodes will be acknowledged as one of the best when he is inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame during the convention in San Diego in January 2009.


Having closed out his 21st season at the helm of the Ospreys, head coach Dusty Rhodes has built a nationally recognized baseball powerhouse at the University of North Florida.

He has compiled a 827-363 record through 20 seasons, guiding UNF to 16 postseason appearances, including five World Series, four district championships while in NAIA and six conference championships in NCAA Division II. 

In 2004, he topped the 1,000 career win mark, with a record of 1,130-481 going into the 2008 season. He was named Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005 and South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year in 2000, 2001 and 2005. 

In 2006, Rhodes led the UNF program into an arena that many believed the Ospreys should have been competing in for years - NCAA Division I. As usual, the UNF program thrived while fighting through the rigors of college baseball's highest division - finishing with a 34-21 record and a 20-10 mark in the Atlantic Sun Conference. That finish was good enough for second place, and sent a clear message to all of college baseball that the Ospreys were going to be a force to be reckoned with from day one.

That success came just a year after UNF finished ranked second in the nation in its final season of Division II membership. The Ospreys ended 2005 by losing to in-state rival Florida Southern in the championship game of the Division II National Baseball Championship. The Ospreys finished the season with a mark of 48-17 -- including a 23-7 record in Peach Belt play -- just one win shy of the school's Division II school record for wins in a season, en route to claiming their sixth PBC title in seven seasons.