SPEAKERS

October 30, 2023

Lelo Prado was named Deputy Director of Athletics/Development on Sept. 6, 2018.

Prado rejoined USF Athletics after a successful eight-year tenure as the head coach of the Bulls’ baseball program (2007-14) and a previous stint serving as USF Associate Director of Athletics for Administration and External Services (2014-17). Prior to rejoining USF, Prado served as Assistant Vice President/Market Development Officer for Republic Bank in Tampa.

In his new role in USF Athletics, Prado will oversee all of athletic fundraising efforts and will direct sports oversight programs to ensure effective compliance and collaboration with head coaches and sports supervisors.

“I am thrilled to add Lelo Prado to our Athletics senior leadership team,” Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly said. “Lelo is deeply connected in the Tampa Bay community as well as to USF Athletics and brings a unique blend of fundraising and coaching experience that will be extremely helpful to me and our program."

Prado previously spent 26 seasons as a collegiate head coach, posting nearly 850 wins (849-639-2) while leading the baseball programs at the University of Tampa (1989-1995), the University of Louisville (1996-2006) and USF. Prado earned five conference coach of the year honors during his career, including being named the 2009 Big East Coach of the Year. In his 19 seasons at the Division I level, his teams posted 12 30-win seasons, including five at USF as he logged 250 wins leading the Bulls. Prado led Louisville to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in baseball in 2002 and his 320 victories leading the Cardinals made him that program’s all-time winningest baseball coach when he departed. Prado also led the University of Tampa baseball program to back-to-back NCAA Division II national championships in 1992 and 1993 while posting a sterling 278-124-1 record.