CARY, N.C. – USA Baseball today announced that University of Illinois Head Coach Dan Hartleb will manage the 2026 Collegiate National Team. This year will mark Hartleb’s managerial debut, but he has been involved with USA Baseball national team programming for more than a decade. His USA Baseball resumé includes serving as an assistant coach at last year’s Collegiate National Team Training Camp and as an assistant coach for the 2021 Collegiate National Team.
“We are excited to have Dan make his managerial debut in 2026 with the Collegiate National Team,” said USA Baseball’s General Manager of Collegiate and Professional National Teams Eric Campbell. “He has a proven track record at Illinois and is one of the most tenured coaches at the collegiate level, which makes him the perfect fit to lead this year’s team in our annual international competition. We are confident that Dan will guide our team to a great deal of success while providing unparalleled guidance to the top non-draft eligible players in the country.”
“I am extremely excited for the opportunity to wear a USA Baseball uniform and lead a team of outstanding collegiate athletes into international play this summer,” said Hartleb. “Representing our country in any capacity is a profound honor and privilege. I am energized by the challenge ahead as we work to select a team that will compete with great pride, passion, and purpose in representing our nation and our national pastime in international competition.”
Hartleb will head to Cary after wrapping up his 21st season as head coach at Illinois and 36th on the coaching staff. He is the winningest head coach in program history, recording 598 victories and counting across his tenure with the school. Prior to taking the head coaching role in 2006, he was the pitching coach and associate head coach from 1991-2005. He has led the Illini to three Big Ten titles, five appearances in the NCAA Tournament, and the program’s first Super Regional appearance in 2015. Thanks to the team’s historic 2015 season, Hartleb was named Big Ten Coach of the Year, ABCA Mideast Region Coach of the Year, a National Coach of the Year finalist, and eventually the Big Ten Coach of the Decade for the 2010s.
In his 36 seasons in Champaign, Hartleb has established consistent success and has been instrumental in player development. Every Illini that has played four years for Hartleb has left with a winning percentage of .500 or better, and his teams have finished with a record of .500 or better in 18 of 20 seasons under his leadership. Since joining the staff in 1991, Hartleb has produced a combined 34 All-Americans, seven Big Ten Players of the Year, five Big Ten Pitchers of the Year, and 47 All-Big Ten First Team selections. Additionally, 76 players have been selected in the MLB Draft, including 24 in the first 10 rounds, and 13 have reached the major leagues.
Hartleb has previously worked with USA Baseball on numerous occasions, including as a member of the staff at the 14U and 17U National Team Development Programs (NTDP) in 2014 and 2016, respectively, as an assistant coach for the 2021 Collegiate National Team, as the manager of Team Light Blue at the 2023 16U/17U NTDP, and most recently as the bench/hitting coach at the 2025 Collegiate National Team Training Camp.
Hartleb began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at Southern Illinois University in 1989-90 under longtime skipper Richard “Itchy” Jones, who he also worked under at Illinois before taking over the program in 2006. A two-year letterwinner at SIU, Hartleb finished his playing career with a .305 batting average. As a senior, Hartleb appeared in 56 contests as a catcher. Hartleb transferred to Southern Illinois from John A. Logan Community College, where he was a junior college all-star catcher. At Hamilton High School in Hamilton, Ohio, Hartleb was a standout athlete in both baseball and football. He was inducted into Hamilton High School’s Hall of Fame in February 2002.
The rest of the Collegiate National Team staff, along with the full schedule, will be announced at a later time. For the most up-to-date information on the Collegiate National Team, visit USABaseball.com and follow @USABaseballCNT on Twitter/X and @USABaseball on Instagram.
