Bio

Keith Veale is entering his 37th season as the head coach of the Mount Vernon Nazarene University baseball program in 2025-26. Over the past 37 years, Veale has led the Cougars to a 1,186-641 overall record, 10 conference titles, five National Christian College Athletic Association national championships, and the school’s only two berths in the NAIA World Series in 1997 and 2004. MVNU has also won 30 or more games 25 times under Veale, and topped the 40-win mark during six of those years.

Under Veale's leadership, MVNU won the Crossroads League regular season title in 2021-22 and qualifed for the NAIA National Tournament for the second year in a row and eighth time overall in program history. Veale was selected as the Crossroads League Head Coach of the Year during the 2021-22 season.

Veale has been selected as the NCCAA National Coach of the Year six times and conference Coach of the Year nine times, and he was tabbed as the NAIA Region Coach of the Year in 1996, 1997, and 2007, and has also had 14 players sign professional baseball contracts during his tenure at MVNU along with 1999 NAIA National Player of the Year, Andy Heimbach (Wheelersburg, HS.)

In 1996, Veale led the Cougars to a 43-3 overall record, setting the NAIA record for best winning percentage in a season (.935). That team also put together a school-record 24-game winning streak at one point.

To show that 1996 was not a fluke, Veale and the Cougars posted a program-best 47-8 overall record in 1997. The team also went 17-1 in the conference and advanced to the NAIA World Series in Sioux City, Iowa, for the first time in school history. MVNU’s other NAIA World Series berth came in 2004 in Lewiston, Idaho, with a fifth-place finish.

A native of Owosso, Michigan, Veale graduated from John Wesley (Mich.) College in 1979 after playing baseball for four years, tennis for two years, and soccer for a year. He came to MVNU after graduation, and in addition to coaching baseball, he has served as the women’s volleyball coach (1983), the men’s soccer coach (1988), the women’s softball coach (1987-1989), the intramural director (1979-1988), and Athletic Director (2014-2017). Veale was inducted into the Cougar Wall of Fame in October 2007, and also continues as an Assistant Professor of Physical Education at MVNU.

Veale resides in Mount Vernon with his wife, Toni. The couple has two grown children, Elyia and Kodi.