Why Terry Rooney Could Be a Program-Changing Addition for Wake Forest Baseball

Wake Forest is doubling down on recruiting as it looks to return to the College World Series.

Jun 17, 2023; Omaha, NE, USA; Wake Forest Demon Deacons head coach Tom Walter on the field before a game against the Stanford Cardinal at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

While the Wake Forest Demon Deacons' baseball season has long been over, the journey toward a championship in 2027 is just beginning.

Earlier in July, the Demon Deacons announced that Terry Rooney would be joining head coach Tom Walter's staff as director of baseball recruiting. It will be his job to continue finding talent at the high school level and bring it to Winston-Salem, where Walter and company will then take the reins and develop those players into ones who can go to Omaha and win the College World Series.

"The addition of Terry Rooney to our staff is a major coup for Wake Forest baseball," Walter said, via Wake Forest Athletics. "Terry was an integral part of LSU's national championship runs in 2009 and 2025 and is relentless in his pursuit of identifying and helping to acquire elite talent."

As Walter mentioned, Rooney has a knack for helping build national championship-winning teams. While he wasn't with LSU during its 2009 championship, his fantastic work helping build the program from 2006-08 helped the Tigers climb all the way to the top of the mountain. His first recruiting class in Baton Rouge featured several top players, including DJ LeMahieu, Micah Gibbs and Anthony Ranaudo.

Perhaps Rooney's greatest accomplishment was recruiting and signing future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander when he was at Old Dominion in the early 2000s.

Rooney spent the 2026 season at South Carolina as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.

"I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to join Wake Forest baseball," Rooney said. "I want to thank Coach Walter for his trust and belief in me. I'm excited to get to work alongside this talented coaching staff and outstanding group of student-athletes, and I look forward to helping recruit and develop future Demon Deacons."

The Future is Bright for Wake Forest Baseball

Wake Forest pitcher Chris Levonas pitches against Kentucky | Wake Forest Athletics

The future for the Demon Deacons looks bright with Rooney on staff. What's more is that the past has been pretty good, too.

The Deacs have had a top-10 recruiting class each of the last three years, an amazing accomplishment for a program and school the size of Wake Forest. While the team hasn't been able to cash in on that influx of talent with another trip to Omaha — the 2023 run to the College World Series is a major reason Wake Forest has been so attractive to incoming student-athletes — it feels like the program is right on the cusp of greatness once again.

Of course, that's all easier said than done. The ACC is one of the best baseball conferences in the nation. It's filled with top teams that can strike down Wake Forest on any given weekend. That's why Rooney's addition is so significant. He has a proven track record of assembling rosters capable of competing at the highest level. While Wake Forest has been able to do that without him, adding him to the equation just seems right.