Johnny Cardenas
Head Coach

Johnny Cardenas is entering his fourth season as head coach of the Lumberjack baseball program and his seventh season overall in Nacogdoches.

He has the Lumberjacks coming off its best season in the history of the program, winning a school-record 37 games last season, including a 20-13 record in Southland Conference play. The season was highlighted by outfielder Bryson Myles, who was taken in the sixth round by the Cleveland Indians after a being named the SLC player, hitter and newcomer of the year, as well as being named to six different all-America teams.

In his second season at the helm, Cardenas led the team to a 34 win season, including a 20-12 record in Southland Conference play. That quick turnaround was enough to earn Cardenas the honor of Southland Conference Coach of the Year in 2010, the first time an SFA coach has ever earned a postseason honor. In three years he has amassed an overall record of 94-75 and watched on as eight players have earned all-conference honors.

He was hired in August 2005 and has served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator before being named head coach in July of 2008. He led the Lumberjacks to the program's second appearance in the Southland Conference Tournament, going 23-32 overall and producing three all-conference players: Erich Lehmann, Sean Meyers and Richard Folmer.

He has also served as a head coach in the Texas Collegiate League in both 2006 and 2007, earning TCL Coach of the Year honors in 2007 after leading the Wichita Falls Roughnecks to the Rogers Hornsby Division title. That season he not only tutored the league's player of the year, but also the league's overall batting champion.

Before entering the collegiate ranks, Cardenas spent five seasons as a head coach in the high school ranks in both Texas and Oklahoma. He landed his first head coaching stint at Colbert High School in Colbert, Okla., where he guided his teams to district championships in each of his three seasons. Twice in that stint he led Colbert to the Class 2A semi-finals in 1999 and 2001. Overall, eight of his players would go on to play at the collegiate level.

Cardenas earned his share of accolades while in Oklahoma, garnering the 2002 SEOBCA Eastern Region Coach of the Year award as well as the 2003 Bryan County Coach of the Year honor.

The Amarillo, Texas, native returned to the Lone Star State in 2003 to take the reins of the Greenville High School program in Greenville, Texas, before eventually making his way to Nacogdoches. While in Greenville, another six players moved on to the college ranks under his watch, including SFA infielder Gabriel Garcia-Serrano.

Cardenas was an All-Jayhawk Conference performer for Seward County Community College in 1989 before moving to TCU where he was an All-Southwest Conference selection. While in Fort Worth, he earned team MVP and GTE Academic All-American honors in 1993 for the Horned Frogs. On top of that, in 1993 he was also named the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame Player of the Year.

Cardenas also enjoyed a career in professional baseball after being picked up by the Seattle Mariners out of TCU. He was then sent to Class A Bellingham where he played on a team that featured future major league stars Raul Ibanez and Jason Varitek, among others.

His professional career continued for six years at a number of stops throughout the Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners' organizations before breaking into the major leagues with the Texas Rangers in 1997. During his time in the pros, Cardenas led the Oklahoma City 89ers to the AAA American Association title and the Duluth Superior Dukes to the independent Northern League Championship. He would also represent Duluth in the all-star game in 1997.

The 'Jacks have had 12 players taken in the professional baseball draft since 2006, which is the second most of any school in the Southland Conference in that time span. Cardenas had four go on to play professionally, including a pair of draftees - Bryson Myles and Chase Weir - taken in last year's draft alone.

Cardenas resides in Nacogdoches with his wife, Natalie. He has two children, a son, Easton (16), and a daughter, Zoe (9).