By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Western State University has found the next man to lead it's baseball program.
Missouri Western director of athletics Andy Carter has announced the hiring of Michael Keeran as the fourth head coach in Griffon baseball history.
"This process brought us a good amount of talented sitting head coaches with proven track records," Carter said in a news release. "Coach Keeran is someone who stood out to us as a rising star and a flat-out winner in all facets."
Keeran joins Missouri Western after a successful two-year run as head coach at Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa, Oklahoma, where he achieved an impressive record of 92-28 and a national ranking as high as No. 4. In 2025, he was honored as the Region 2 West Division Coach of the Year.
During his time at NOC, Keeran developed over 20 players who advanced to compete at the NCAA Division I level, including several NJCAA Division II All-Americans. His high-octane offense contributed to the Mavericks' ranking in the top 10 nationally in hits (641), RBIs (536) and runs scored (606) in his final season.
He joins a Griffon program with a minimal lineage and strong tradition. But the program has fallen on hard times in recent years.
"I am very honored and blessed to be named the fourth head baseball coach at MWSU," Keeran said. "I would like to thank Andy Carter and the administration for the opportunity to restore the legacy of Griffon baseball. My family and I are excited to get to St. Joseph and be a part of Griffon Nation. This is a great opportunity. It's the ultimate combination of an elite conference, a great city and tradition that exists across all sports. The potential here is endless and its time to get to work."
Before NOC, Keeran served for one season as the recruiting coordinator at Western Illinois at the NCAA Division I level. He was also the head coach at Bismarck State College in North Dakota from 2020 to 2022, where the Mystics won conference championships in both 2021 and 2022, along with a regional title in 2022. Under his guidance, BSC posted an impressive overall record of 69-18 and consistently ranked among the Top 25, achieving a high of #2 in NJCAA Division 2.
From 2018 to 2022, Keeran enjoyed a successful coaching career in various summer collegiate leagues, boasting an impressive record of 171-38. His teams were crowned regular-season champions each year and clinched postseason titles in four out of five seasons (2018, 2019, 2020, 2022). He earned Coach of the Year accolades in the Pioneer Collegiate Baseball League from 2018 to 2020 and received the Expedition League Coach of the Year award in 2022.
In 2019, Keeran served as the Recruiting Coordinator at NAIA Valley City State University, leading the Vikings to a runner-up finish in the conference and the best postseason performance in the school's history. The previous year, he was an assistant at Grinnell College, where he played a key role in achieving a 24-14 record.
From 2013 to 2016, Keeran was an assistant for Clear Lake High School baseball in Iowa, where the Lions claimed IHSAA State Championships in 2013, 2015 and 2016, compiling an impressive overall record of 129-27 during his tenure.
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