Southeast Arkansas College has promoted Ed Corniel to head baseball coach and named Doug Wingler head softball coach this week.
Corniel becomes the third head baseball coach at the college since baseball began competing in the 2023-24 school year. Steven Adams, SEARK’s first hire, left before the first season and was succeeded by assistant Toby Cornejo, who has become assistant coach at Prairie View A&M University, SEARK athletic director Chad Kline said. Prairie View, which hired Daniel Dulin as head coach last month, has not yet announced Cornejo’s hire.
Cornejo went 67-47 in two seasons with the Sharks, including marks of 34-24 overall and 15-9 in NJCAA Division II Region 2 this past spring. SEARK qualified for the Region 2 tournament in May but went 0-2 there.
Corniel, originally from New York, has been with SEARK baseball from the beginning and was the Sharks’ hitting coach under Cornejo. The Sharks ranked fifth nationally with a .356 team average.
Kline said Corniel’s promotion provided the baseball Sharks with a smooth transition.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I’m passionate about empowering student-athletes to succeed, serve and lead – on the diamond and beyond,” Corniel said in a news release.
Corniel earned an associate’s degree in sports management and individual studies from Jefferson Community College in New York state in 2020, and bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Olivet in Michigan in 2022. He won the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove award as an NJCAA Division III player in 2016, batting .347 with 32 runs batted in.
Since 2018, Corniel has coached at Community Health Academy in the Heights in New York, Southwest Virginia Community College and Olivet.
“He’s been an integral part of our baseball program over the last two seasons, and his leadership, energy and player-first mindset have already laid the foundation for lasting success,” Kline said in the release.
Wingler is already the fourth head softball coach hired full-time at SEARK, which has yet to complete a full season after launching its program before the 2023-24 school year. Tucker Hughes was hired after Matt Prysock left before the start of the 2025 season, but injuries and transfers before the season limited the roster to 12 players, forcing school officials to call the season after two games. Belinda Hendrix coached an abbreviated season in 2024 before the Sharks pulled the plug due to injuries.
Hughes left recently to become head baseball coach at Arkansas State University-Three Rivers, according to Kline.
Kline said he and Wingler spoke with the athletes and reported they are “good to go” for the fall games and 2026 season despite the constant coaching changes. It was not clear how many athletes are currently in the softball program.
“I think it’s a revolving door at a lot of junior colleges,” Kline said. “You hire a lot of younger guys and gals who are trying to move up and better their careers. It’s almost like with players in the transfer portal. It’s a slippery slope, but I think we have the right guys in place. We focus one year at a time.”
Wingler spent the previous seven seasons as head coach at northern California’s Mendocino College. Prior, he was a high school assistant and head coach for 10 years.
Wingler played baseball at Alabama’s Shelton State Community College and the University of Louisville, earning second-team All-Metro Conference honors with the Cardinals, now of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Kline believes Wingler will hang around in Pine Bluff to give SEARK softball stability.
“If you’re moving from California, you’ll probably stay a little bit,” Kline said.
