JR Head enters his third season as head coach of the SWOSU Baseball program in 2027 after being named the eighth head coach in program history and fifth of the NCAA era on May 23, 2024.
Through his first two seasons as head coach, Head has continued to build one of the Great American Conference's top offensive teams while producing seven All-GAC selections. SWOSU ranked fourth in the GAC with a .304 team batting average in his debut season in 2025 before climbing to second in the league at .322 in 2026. The Bulldogs also struck out fewer times than any team in the conference in 2026.
SWOSU has also been among the GAC's top defensive teams during Head's tenure, committing the second-fewest errors in the conference in each of his first two seasons.
Five Bulldogs earned All-GAC honors in 2026, highlighted by First Team selection Landon Meyer, who led the conference in runs scored before earning First Team All-Region recognition. Second Team All-GAC selection Kotaro Wakui led the league in doubles. Meyer was also named SWOSU's Male Athlete of the Year, giving Head's program the award in consecutive years.
In Head's first season at the helm in 2025, SWOSU produced two First Team All-GAC selections. Bodi Wallar was a unanimous First Team selection at designated hitter after batting .395, the second-highest average in the GAC, and was named SWOSU's Male Athlete of the Year.
Head was elevated to head coach following 10 seasons as an assistant with the Bulldogs. He began as a volunteer assistant in the fall of 2014, served as a graduate assistant from 2016-19 and remained as the program's lead assistant from 2019-24. Working extensively with the offense, Head helped SWOSU finish among the GAC's top three in team batting average four times over his final six seasons as an assistant.
His assistant coaching tenure included SWOSU's historic 2016 season when the Bulldogs won the GAC regular-season championship, advanced to the NCAA Division II Central Region Championships and won an NCAA-era record 34 games. Head also helped tutor outfielder Alex Bedard to the program's first GAC Player of the Year award in 2021. Bedard went on to earn All-America honors and was one of two All-Americans Head coached as a Bulldog assistant.
Head's ties to SWOSU began as a student-athlete from 2013-14, when he started 74 games in center field. He helped the Bulldogs reach back-to-back conference tournaments, including a second-place GAC finish in 2013, and earned Honorable Mention All-GAC honors as a senior. Head was also a two-time GAC All-Academic Team selection.
Prior to SWOSU, Head played two seasons at Northern Oklahoma College-Enid, where he earned All-Region and All-America honors in 2012 and was a two-time National Gold Glove recipient.
A native of Midwest City, Oklahoma, Head earned his bachelor's degree in Parks & Recreation Management from SWOSU in 2014 and master's degree in Sports Management in 2018. He is married to Chelsea (Bates) Head, a former member of the Lady Bulldog Basketball program. The couple resides in Weatherford with their daughter, Halle and son, Houston.
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The Head File
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Coaching Career
2024-present: SWOSU (head coach)
2019-24: SWOSU (assistant coach)
2016-19: SWOSU (graduate assistant coach)
2014-16: SWOSU (volunteer assistant coach)
2014: Weatherford Eagles Prep Summer Team (head coach)
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Playing Career
2013-14: SWOSU
     Honorable Mention All-GAC
     2x Academic All-Conference
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2011-12: NOC-Enid
     2x Gold Glove winner
     2012 NJCAA All-Region
     2012 NJCAA All-American
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Education
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
     M.Ed, 2018
     B.S., 2014
Northern Oklahoma College-Enid
     A.A., 2012
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