LAKE MARY — If it wasn't already clear, 2024 cemented that the current decade in the Florida League belongs to the Leesburg Lightning.
As the head coach of the champion Leesburg Lightning, who won their third championship this decade with a two-game sweep of the DeLand Suns, Rich Billings has been named the 2024 Florida Collegiate Summer League Coach of the Year. The award is given annually to the head coach of the Florida League champions.
With his third Whiting Cup win, Billings becomes just the second coach in Florida League history to win the league title three times, joining Kevin Davidson, who won the Florida League in 2013, 2014, and 2017. Billings is the only coach to win three titles with the same franchise, with the first two of Davidson's wins coming in Winter Park and the 2017 crown coming in the Sanford dugout.
The Lightning have been in the Florida League Championship Series in five consecutive seasons, a streak dating back to the 2020 season. The Championship Series format, inaugurated in 2018, has smiled on the Lightning, who have won three championships, including a pair of Game 3s, after four consecutive Championship losses in the one-game format played at Tropicana Field.
The 2024 Leesburg Lightning started fast, racing out to a 7-2 record early in the season. The Lightning then hit a midseason lull, dropping seven of their next ten games to move their record to 10-9 at the end of June. July, though, was extremely kind to the Lightning. Leesburg went 10-2 in the second month of the regular season, allowing the Lightning to finish with a 20-11 regular season record and the team's fourth regular season pennant in the last seven years (2018, 2020, 2023, 2024).
Despite being the League's top seed, the Lightning were pushed to the limit in the opening round by the Sanford River Rats. Leesburg lost Game 1 of the series, then trailed entering the ninth inning of the winner-take-all Game 3. However, the Lightning rallied to send the game into extras, then walked off into the Florida League Championship Series. In the FLCS, the Lightning were clearly the better team, winning the title with a sweep of the DeLand Suns.
The third championship just adds to the Florida League resume of Billings, who stands as one of the most accomplished coaches in league history. During the season, he added to what were already League records, running his regular season win total to 222, his postseason win total to 21, and his total win total to 243.
