Brett Mays enters his ninth season coaching at the collegiate level and his third as pitching coach at Norfolk State University.
In his first season with the Spartans in 2024, Mays led a pitching staff that set a new program record with 418 strikeouts on the year. Under his guidance, Dalton Barham finished fourth in the conference with 82 strikeouts before signing a professional contract with the Florence Y’alls.
The Spartans continued to make strides on the mound in 2025. Nathaniel Varnier ranked fifth in the conference in strikeouts, recording 77 total punchouts with 28 looking, and later signed a professional contract with the Rocky Mountain Vibes. Parker Hampton also emerged as one of the league’s most efficient arms, finishing in the top 10 in the conference in fewest earned runs allowed.
Mays has also spent four summers with the Peninsula Pilots of the Coastal Plain League, a premier collegiate summer wooden-bat league. Working under Hank Morgan, the CPL’s winningest manager, Mays helped guide the Pilots to Eastern Division championships in 2021 and 2025. During his tenure, numerous pitchers earned All-CPL honors, and three were selected in the MLB Draft.
Prior to arriving at Norfolk State, Mays served as pitching coach at Randolph-Macon College from 2022–23. The Yellow Jackets climbed as high as No. 6 in the national rankings in 2023 and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Regionals. That same year, right-handed pitcher Hayden Snelsire was selected in the 17th round of the MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays, becoming one of only two Division III players drafted in 2023.
From 2020–21, Mays coached at Bryant & Stratton College–Virginia Beach at the NJCAA level. Under the mentorship of two-time MLB All-Star Gary Lavelle, he helped develop more than 10 pitchers who went on to earn scholarships at four-year institutions. Earlier in his career, Mays helped launch Stratford University’s athletic department and baseball program, competing in the USCAA during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. The Stratford baseball team earned a national ranking of No. 7 in 2019.
Before entering the collegiate ranks, Mays served as pitching coach at Bethel High School in Hampton, Va., during the 2017 season and oversaw pitching development for the Old Dominion Hitters travel baseball organization from 2016–19.
A 2015 graduate of Christopher Newport University, Mays pitched three seasons for the Captains. He also spent one year at Marshall University in 2012. In 2013, he was inducted into the Woodside High School Athletic Hall of Fame, his alma mater.
Mays resides in Newport News, Va., with his wife, Kala, their rescue dog, Millie, and their daughter, Elsie, who was born in July 2025.
