Among 19 intercollegiate athletics programs at NSU, the baseball program won one Sunshine State Conference Championship, one NCAA Division II South Regional Championship and one NCAA Division II National Championship in 2016. The NSU Baseball Complex was the home field to former NSU students like J.D. Martinez from the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas and former Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Bruce Fiers. For the last four years, it was also home to Head Coach Laz Gutierrez.
In 2019, Gutierrez became the fourth coach in Nova Southeastern Sharks baseball history after 13 years working with the Boston Red Sox. At Fenway Park, Gutierrez was part of the 2007, 2013 and 2017 Major League Baseball World Series Titles.
Despite his collegiate career as the left-handed pitcher at the University of Miami and three seasons in the Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres organizations from 1998-2001 after being drafted in the 1998 MLB Draft, it is his trajectory in the Boston Red Sox franchise that standouts the most.
Before the Boston franchise, Gutierrez was head coach of the Coral Gables High School baseball program.
“The transition from being a player to coach was challenging. I was no longer a player preparing for a game but leading a group of young men. With that, I realized my responsibility was to lead and impact lives,” Gutierrez said.
Having spent three years at Coral Gables High School, Gutierrez moved on to college baseball. In 2006, as the pitching coach of Barry University, the Buccaneers ranked fourth nationally in strikeouts and fifth in total strikeouts. Furthermore, that year, in his first season as manager of the North Adams Steeplecats, he led the New England Collegiate Baseball League team to the playoffs while notching a franchise-high 25 wins. Coach Gutierrez’s success at Miami Shores and North Adams caught the attention of the Boston Red Sox.
Following his work as a South Florida-based amateur scout and pitching coach for the Red Sox’s Short Season A affiliate Lowell Spinners in 2007, Gutierrez earned his first position with the Red Sox as the Player Development Programs Coordinator that would eventually make him the Mental Skills Coordinator for the Boston Red Sox. Gutierrez developed the organization’s performance psychology curriculum by applying leadership and mental skills routines that maximize and perfect the players’ performance.
“I was working with the best of the best. Working with elite athletes and being part of a winning championship organization was very special. The kids that we drafted were the best out of it. We were able to develop these kids not only to be elite baseball players but good role models in our society,” Gutierrez said.
After 13 seasons with the Boston Red Sox and winning three MLB World Series Titles, Gutierrez was hired as the baseball head coach of the NSU Sharks in 2019.
Gutierrez said NSU “has a young but tremendous history in athletics, and if you look at the baseball program itself, the program develops great players that go on to professional baseball.”
In the 2022 season, Gutierrez lead the team to a 17-game winning streak and a trip to the South Regionals finals concluding the season with a 36-17 record and their first No. 1 ranking since 2017.
Gutierrez now works for Miami Hurricanes Baseball as the pitching and mental skills coach.
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