Xavier University Athletics
Xavier Athletics Announces Contract Extension for Billy O’Conner
12.09.24 | Baseball
New agreement extends O’Conner as Siemers Family Baseball Head Coach through the 2028 season
"Billy's teams have consistently competed at the top of the BIG EAST Conference," said Vice President and Director of Athletics Greg Christopher. "While competing for championships and spots in the NCAA Tournament, his teams also conduct themselves academically and in other ways off the field that make all of us at Xavier University proud."
In his seven seasons leading the Xavier program, O'Conner has led the Musketeers to 182 wins, including 73 in BIG EAST play, winning at least 30 games in each of the last three seasons. The Musketeers have earned a spot in the last five BIG EAST Tournaments that were contested, winning the tournament title and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2023. During O'Conner's tenure, a Musketeer has been selected in the MLB Draft every year except 2020, when the draft was limited to five rounds.
"I'm extremely honored and grateful to be given the opportunity to continue to lead this program at my alma mater," said O'Conner. "I'm incredibly fortunate to work with great assistant coaches and players who really make this program what it is. We have unwavering support from our administration, our support staff, and our alumni, and that backing has put us on a special trajectory moving forward. I'm proud of what we've done to this point, but know that there is so much more for us to accomplish. The future is bright here at Xavier and I'm so lucky to be a part of it.
"Thank you to Greg Christopher, Tom Eiser, and Matt Jennings for their leadership of the baseball program, and thank you to my wife Elizabeth and daughters Harper and Halle for all they do to make this possible. Let's Go X!"
Xavier is coming off a 2024 season where the Musketeers posted 30 wins for a third-straight year and earned the No. 4 seed the BIG EAST Tournament. In 2023, O'Conner led the Musketeers to 39 wins, tying the school record for wins in a season, and guided Xavier to the BIG EAST Tournament Championship, the program's fourth BIG EAST Championship and fifth NCAA appearance. The 2023 Musketeers were selected to the Nashville Regional, topping Eastern Illinois and host Vanderbilt to make the program's third appearance in a Regional Final.
Xavier finished with 33 wins in 2022, the most since Xavier's 34-win campaign in 2017 and earned the No. 4 seed in the 2022 BIG EAST Baseball Tournament where the Musketeers finished runners-up. The 2022 appearance in the BIG EAST Championship series marked Xavier's third-straight tournament playing for the league title, a streak that stretched back to 2019.
Prior to taking over the program, O'Conner served as an assistant from 2014 to 2017, helping the Musketeers to three BIG EAST Championships in four years and back-to-back NCAA Tournament Regional Finals.
As a player at Xavier, O'Conner helped the Musketeers advance to their first NCAA Tournament after capturing the 2009 Atlantic 10 Conference tournament championship, earning Most Outstanding Player honors for the league tournament. O'Conner is a Cincinnati, Ohio native, and earned his finance degree from Xavier in 2009. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have two daughters, Harper and Halle.
