Elizabethtown College Athletics

Adam Sheibley's passion for Elizabethtown College baseball was on display each time he took the field for the Blue Jays as a student-athlete. The 10th head coach in program history, Sheibley is in his eighth season with the Blue Jays in 2025

Sheibley led the team to another record breaking season in 2024. The Blue Jays finished with a 33-14 record which tied for the most wins in a season in program history. Etown advanced to the Landmark Conference Championship game but ultimately fell short against Scranton. The season didn't stop there for Etown as they earned their second straight NCAA DIII Tournament At-Large bid and made their third straight trip to the Tournament. Elizabethtown would go on to advance to the NCAA DIII Harrisburg, Pa. Regional final where they fell to Randolph-Macon; which is the farthest any Etown baseball team has gone in the Tournament. Etown also was awarded back-to-back Landmark Player of the Year honors as sophomore, Quinten Perillii earned the honor. 

While the Blue Jays fell short of back-to-back, Landmark Conference Champions in 2023, Sheibley led the team to a season-best 31-13 overall record since 1994. He also led Etown to their second straight NCAA DIII Regional appearance. Early in the season, Sheibley earned his 100th career-win. 

The 2023 season was a year of records, milestones, and many awards. Sheibley earned his first ever Landmark Conference Coach of the Year award. Senior, Ben Watson was named Landmark Player of the Year while freshman, Quinten Perilli was named Landmark Rookie of the Year. The Blue Jays also had a program record of nine be named to the All-Conference team. The awards didn't stop there as Etown had four Blue Jays named to the D3baseball.com All-Region team and three named to the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region team. Perilli was named the program's first D3baseball Region V Rookie of the Year. Watson became the program's first D3baseball First Team All-American. 

Sheibley has coached 45 All-Conference players, 33 All-Region players, and two All-Americans. In 2020 he saw Derek Manning become the school's first and only CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year. Sheibley's teams have also earned the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award in each of his years as head coach. 

In 2021 Sheibley led Etown to its best finish since 2017, guiding the Blue Jays to an appearance in the Landmark Conference Championship. The 17 wins in the shortened season was the most since 2018. Four players earned All-Conference honors, the most since 2018, and relief pitcher Kelly Holdren earned All-Region accolades from D3baseball.com and ABCA/Rawlings.

In his first season at the helm for Etown, the Blue Jays reached the Landmark Conference Semifinals. Elizabethtown went 12-6 in Landmark play and finished the season 21-19 overall.

He watched as Manning racked up the in-season and postseason awards. Along with being a Landmark Baseball Athlete of the Week during the season, Manning was picked for both academic and athletic awards come the end of the season. The junior was an Academic All-District Team selection, the Landmark's Player of the Year and First Team OF, a D3Baseball.com All-Mid-Atlantic Region selection, ABCA/Rawlings All-America, All-Region, Google Cloud Academic All-America First Team, and to start the 2019 season, a D3Baseball.com Preseason All-America.

Sheibley transitioned from player-to-coach at Elizabethtown, where he spent two seasons as an assistant under former head coach Cliff Smith in 2011 and 2012. The Landisburg, Pennsylvania, native linked up with Matt Jones, another coach with Blue Jay ties, as an assistant at Shippensburg from 2013-15, before landing his first head coaching job at Landmark Conference rival Juniata College, where he'd been for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

Sheibley was in the process of trying to transform a Juniata program that produced seven straight losing seasons prior to his arrival in 2016, but it was a process that did not come without hardships. Inheriting a team from the previous staff, Sheibley took the Eagles to nine victories in his first season.

In 2017, Juniata's roster featured 17 underclassmen, including 14 freshmen, and was void of a senior. Despite their inexperience, the Eagles improved throughout the year and were challenging some of the Landmark's best by the end of the season. Juniata shut out a Catholic team that had the top regular season record in the conference, played three tight games against No. 2 seed Susquehanna and forced the eventual league champion Blue Jays to use late-inning heroics to avoid a doubleheader sweep.

Sheibley worked closely with the infielders and outfielders and served as recruiting coordinator for Jones at Shippensburg. Jones was Elizabethtown's coach from 2000-06 and coached Sheibley as a freshman. The Raiders won 25 games or more in each of Sheibley's three seasons on staff, going 86-65 overall, with an NCAA Division II Atlantic Region championship and NCAA Division II World Series appearance in 2013.

As an assistant at Elizabethtown, Sheibley helped his alma mater to 39 victories and two berths in the Commonwealth Conference Championships.

Sheibley's numbers as a player at Elizabethtown from 2006-09 put him among the Blue Jay greats. He holds program career records in triples (23), stolen bases (95) and games played (158). His 162 runs scored and 568 at-bats also stood as program records before Kyle Fackler '17 surpassed them this past season. Sheibley remains second in both categories along with ranking second in runs batted in (115), second in bases on balls (94) and tied for fourth in hits (178).

A three-time All-MAC Commonwealth Conference selection and 2009 ABCA All-Mid-Atlantic Region Second Team honoree, Sheibley is one of only two players in program history to be named conference Rookie of the Year (2006) and Player of the Year (2009). He played on three MAC Commonwealth Conference championship teams (2006, 2008 and 2009) and is a veteran of nine NCAA Division III Championship tournament games.

The former infielder turned outfielder led the country in stolen bases (51) and stolen bases per game (1.16) during his senior year. His 23 career triples are tied for the fifth most in Division III history, while his 12 triples in 43 games as a freshman in 2006 rank tied for sixth in a single season.

"What first drew me to Elizabethtown as a student-athlete was the academic reputation," explained Sheibley. "It is a highly-regarded institution that provides a personalized education for all students. Along with the academic reputation, the baseball program's tradition of success and excellence drew me to the College. I'm excited and thankful for the chance to return to an institution that has already given me so much."

Sheibley received his Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from Elizabethtown in 2009, and earned a Master of Science in sport management from California University of Pennsylvania in 2015.

 

ADAM SHEIBLEY COACHING RECORD
		Overall			Conference
Year	School	Wins	Losses	Pct.	Wins	Losses	Pct.	Postseason & Honors
2016	Juniata	9	30	.231	4	17	.190
2017	Juniata	6	33	.154	1	16	.059
2018	Elizabethtown	21	19	.525	12	6	.667	Landmark Conference Semifinals
2019	Elizabethtown	14	26	.350	7	11	.389
2020*	Elizabethtown	8	3	.727	0	0	.000
2021	Elizabethtown	17	11	.607	13	9	.591	Landmark Conference Runner-up
2022	Elizabethtown	22	22	.500	11	7	.611	Landmark Conference Champions
2023	Elizabethtown	31	13	.705	16	2	.889	Landmark Conference Semifinals
2024	Elizabethtown	33	14	.702	18	6	.750	Landmark Conference Runner-up
2025	Elizabethtown	29	13	.690	19	5	.792	Landmark Conference Semifinals
Playoff Totals
2018	Elizabethtown	1	2	.333	Landmark Conference Semifinals
2021	Elizabethtown	4	2	.667	Landmark Conference Runner-up
2022	Elizabethtown	3	2	.600	Landmark Conference Champion/NCAA DIII Regionals
2023	Elizabethtown	1	4	.200	Landmark Conference Semifinals/NCAA DIII Regionals
2024	Elizabethtown	4	4	.500	Landmark Conference Runner-up/NCAA DIII Regional Runner-up
2025	Elizabethtown	2	2	.500	Landmark Conference Semifinals
6 Appearances		15	16	.484
Coaching Totals
2 Seasons	Juniata	15	63	.192	5	33	.132
8 Seasons	Elizabethtown	175	121	.591	96	46	.676
8 Seasons		190	184	.508	101	79	.561

* Season canceled due to COVID-19
Updated on 5/20/2025