Kane Sweeney

Biography

Kane Sweeney enters his second season as the head baseball coach at USC Upstate during the 2026 season after being announced as the program's fifth head coach on June 14, 2024. The 2025 season marks his seventh overall on the USC Upstate staff, serving on the staff as the associate head coach (2024) or assistant coach (2020-23) after being announced to the coaching staff on July 3, 2019. In his first season at the helm, Sweeney led Upstate to its first-ever Big South Championships, claiming the regular season and tournament championships en route to an appearance in the NCAA Clemson Regional, where USC Upstate was the lone first-time qualifier in the 2026 NCAA Tournament field. He was one of three first-time head coaches to lead their program to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2025, joining Coastal Carolina's Kevin Schnall and West Virginia's Steve Sabins. Upstate's 36 wins in 2025 make Sweeney the winningest first-year head coach in program history, surpassing John Duarity (34 wins in 1986) while extending the Spartans' streak of seasons with 35 or more wins to five. The Spartans collected numerous pieces of hardware throughout the 2025 season as the campaign saw the program's first-ever Dick Howser Trophy Semifinalist (Johnny Sweeney), an ABCA/Rawlings First Team All-American (J. Sweeney), a D1Baseball Second Team Freshman All-American (Henry Zenor), an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Finalist (Scott Newman), and two ABCA/Rawlings All-Region selections (J.Sweeney and Scott Campbe