Derek Simmons

Recruiting Coordinator/Infielders

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Derek Simmons was named recruiting coordinator and infielders coach by Chris Pollard on June 14, 2025. Simmons comes to UVA after spending the 2025 season with Pollard at Duke in the same role.

In his lone season with the Blue Devils, Simmons coordinated all developmental aspects for the infielders and spearheaded Duke’s recruiting efforts as the recruiting coordinator.

Simmons arrived in Durham after spending five seasons at Indiana working with hitters, infielders and as the program’s recruiting coordinator. Known for his recruiting prowess,

Simmons secured a pair of top 25 classes to go along with four other top classes per Collegiate Baseball Newspaper while at Indiana. In 2023, the Hoosiers class was tabbed as the 17th-best class in the country, the highest in Indiana program history.

During his time in Bloomington, Simmons helped oversee the development of multiple MLB Draft picks, three Freshman All-Americans in 2022, one freshman All-American hitter in 2023, and a program-record 26 Big Ten victories during the 2021 conference-only slate.

Before arriving at Indiana, Simmons was an assistant coach at Kent State, where he helped the Golden Flashes land the second-highest recruiting class in program history during the 2018-19 cycle as the program’s recruiting coordinator. The 2019 freshman class entered as the No. 25-ranked class in the country by Collegiate Baseball.

Simmons also had stops at Alabama (2017) and Kennesaw State (2013-16) before joining the Golden Flashes in 2018. He began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant coach at Central Michigan (2011-12), helping the Chippewas claim a 2011 Mid-American Conference West Division title with seven student-athletes on the all-MAC squad.

The Duluth, Georgia, native started his playing career at the University of Montevallo and helped the Falcons to the Division II College World Series in 2006. A two-year letterwinner at UM, he went on to earn two more letters and was named team captain at Georgia State. The first player in Panthers history to earn first-team all-conference honors twice, Simmons finished his career among the top 10 in numerous single-season categories with a career batting average of .344.