Auntwan Riggins enters his seventh season as coach of the Prairie View A&M baseball team following a successful career as instructor, trainer and coach of some of the top NCAA Division I prospects. Riggins was named as the seventh head coach in Prairie View A&M baseball history on August 28, 2015.
Under his guidance, the Panthers have been a consistent fixture in tournament play, having made it to the Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament in each of the past three seasons.
In 2019, Riggins led Prairie View A&M to 18 wins, including nine in league play. Along the way, he coached the league's leading hitter in Daniel Lingua -- the lone .400 or better hitter in the conference -- and the Panthers eliminated Alcorn State from the SWAC Tournament.
Riggins returned the Panthers to the postseason in 2018, during which Prairie View A&M ousted Mississippi Valley State from the field.
In 2017, the Panthers doubled their win total from Riggins' first year at the helm. PVAMU won 20 games last season, the highest win total since 2014. Coming from the SWAC Tournament losers' bracket, the Panthers won back-to-back elimination games over SWAC Western Division Champion Grambling as well as Alcorn State in advancing to the semifinals for the first time since 2014.
In his first year at the helm, Riggins led the Panthers to a season split of the six-game series against archrival and 2015 SWAC Champion and 2016 conference runner-up Texas Southern, along with a victory over Incarnate Word of the Southland Conference.
Riggins came to Prairie View A&M from the Warriors Baseball Academy in Houston, Texas. Prior to that, he spent 13 years with Houston's Proway Baseball Academy as one of its premier instructors and coaches. Both academies train baseball players ages 7 through 18 years old, and can claim numerous players who went on to play NCAA Division I baseball among their alumni.
Riggins has provided individual instruction to numerous players who have gone on to successful NCAA Division I careers, some of whom were also drafted professionally. His most recent alumnus to be drafted was Kyle Survance, who played collegiately at the University of Houston. Survance was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the eighth round of the 2015 Major League Baseball June Amateur Draft.
Another player Riggins coached was Spencer Dennis, whom Prairie View A&M fans may remember as a key player on the Panthers' 2007 SWAC championship team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
Riggins, an East Texas native and product of Houston’s Madison High, is no stranger to the Southwestern Athletic Conference, having played collegiately at Texas Southern, concluding his career in 1998. In two seasons with the Tigers, he hit .364, and knocked 19 doubles, 11 triples, and six home runs. In 1997, he was named the SWAC's Newcomer of the Year after hitting .341 with five home runs.
At the conclusion of his junior season in 1998, Riggins was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 20th round of the Major League Baseball Draft. He reached the AAA level in 2001 while playing with the Portland Beavers in the San Diego Padres organization. After he retired from professional baseball, Riggins eventually returned to Texas Southern to receive his degree,
graduating from the school in 2011.
Riggins and his wife of 10 years, Deveka, have two daughters, Masyn and Hudsyn.
