North Carolina head coach Mike Fox of Chapel Hill, who guided the Tar Heels to a third straight trip to the College World Series in 2008, was named national coach of the year Monday by Baseball America. A two-time ABCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year, Fox is the first UNC baseball coach to claim national coaching honors and the first Atlantic Coast Conference skipper to be honored by Baseball America.

Fox's Heels posted a 54-14 record this year for a third straight 50-win season. (No one in the country has matched UNC's 165 wins from 2006-2008.) The Tar Heels hosted and captured NCAA regional and super regional titles at Cary's USA Baseball National Training Complex and then went 3-2 in Omaha to earn a third-place finish. UNC has posted top-three national finishes in each of the last three seasons.

With its home field under construction, Carolina played all 36 home games and practiced at the Cary facility, logging a 30-6 record. Fox's club will begin play in 2009 in the state-of-the-art Bryson Field at Boshamer Stadium, which is in the midst of a $25 million renovation.

UNC also went 22-7 in ACC play and did not lose an ACC weekend series for the first time since the league went to its three-game weekend series schedule in 1990. Carolina was ranked in the nation's top five for the entire 2008 season and earned the first consensus No. 1 ranking in program history following a series victory at then-No. 1 Miami to close the regular season.

Fox also guided sophomores Dustin Ackley, Tim Fedroff, Kyle Seager and Alex White to All-America honors, giving the Tar Heels four All-America selections for the first time in school history. White was named ACC Pitcher of the Year, as he headlined a UNC pitching staff that statistically ranked as the nation's best.

Swimmers speed

Rising sophomore Tyler Harris and 2001 Tar Heel alum Erika Acuff Erndl both turned in school record-setting performances on the first day of the 2008 United States Swimming Olympic Trials at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb., Sunday afternoon.

Harris, a 2008 NCAA All-America in the 400-yard individual medley, took a 12th-place finish in the 400-meter IM in 4:21.99. Harris shattered the previous UNC record in the event of 4:25.29 established by Yann deFabrique at the U.S. Open in 1992, and the Richmond native improved 11 spots on his seed position of 23rd.

In the women's 400 IM, Acuff Erndl swam to a 16th-place finish in 4:47.06, breaking the long course school record of 4:48.00 set by Polly Winde Surhoff in 1983 at the U.S. Trials for the World Swimming Championships that year. Erndl was seeded No. 56 in the event but moved up 40 places to grab her 16th-place finish. At age 30, she is the oldest of the Tar Heels competing at the meet.

Like the Track and Field trials in Eugene, Ore., the Swimming Trials continue through Sunday in Omaha. CHHS rising senior Carly Smith and ex-Tiger Jeff James were among those trying to make the swim team that will compete in Beijing.

Classy Jordan to receive honor

The Charlotte Chamber has chosen Michael Jordan to receive its Citizen of the Carolinas award, given annually to a person who has had a positive impact on North and South Carolina. In a press release last week, the Chamber announced Jordan will be honored in November due to his charitable work and basketball success. In receiving the award, the Wilmington native -- who is currently a part-owner and an executive for the Charlotte Bobcats -- joins the ranks of Dean Smith and Billy Graham.