Karl Nonemaker, a former Auburn assistant and All-SEC outfielder at Vanderbilt, was named an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Tigers' baseball program in the fall of 2017 and enters his ninth season back on The Plains in 2026. He was promoted from assistant coach to associate head coach in July 2023.
During his time on the Plains, Nonemaker has assembled seven top-15 recruiting classes, highlighted by three straight top-10 classes from 2024-26, and has helped mentor 18 All-SEC honorees, five All-Americans, and five Freshman All-Americans. He was named the 2022 American Baseball Coaches Association Division I Assistant Coach of the Year, becoming the first assistant coach at Auburn to earn the distinction.
Along with his recruiting efforts, Nonemaker's main on-field duty includes working with the Auburn infielders, a group that has highlighted the team's collective .978 fielding percentage in his eight seasons on the Plains. Prior to the 2018 season, the Tigers turned in a fielding percentage higher than .971 on just two occasions. Since Nonemaker's arrival, the team has hit that mark in every season and has turned in seven of the top nine fielding percentages in program history.
Only four combined everyday starters have returned to the infield in the last three seasons, but Nonemaker has re-hauled the unit that has led the team to a .978 fielding percentage or better in each season, good for three of the top five marks in program history.
Twelve Auburn infielders have been drafted with Nonemaker on staff, including four in the top five rounds. In the seven years prior to Nonemaker's arrival, seven infielders were drafted and none went in the top five rounds.
Both offensively and defensively, player development has been a calling card of Nonemaker's as he has helped mentor the likes of Ryan Bliss, Sonny DiChiara and Cole Foster, among others, from their collegiate to professional careers. All eight infielders drafted since 2021 are still playing professional baseball.
Nonemaker also assists Gabe Gross with the Auburn offense, which has turned in five of the best seasons in nearly a decade prior to his arrival and has played an instrumental role in leading the Tigers to the College World Series twice in three postseasons from 2019-22. The program has also made four super regional appearances and five regional appearances in his tenure, including a regional host site bid in three of the last four seasons and the first home super regional in program history in 2025.
Following the 2021 season, Nonemaker was tabbed by Baseball America among select assistant coaches most likely to become successful head coaches. Again in 2025, he was named by D1 Baseball as one of the 25 assistants in the country most ready to be a head coach.
Prior to his current Auburn tenure, Nonemaker's career includes two years playing professionally in the Philadelphia Phillies organization and 11 years coaching at three universities: Old Dominion (2012-17), Monmouth (2010-11) and Auburn (2005-07). He also spent two years (2008-09) working for Louisville Slugger.
In Nonemaker's six seasons at ODU, the Monarchs posted a 162-124 overall record, winning 30 or more games four times and making a regional appearance in 2014 - the program's first in 14 seasons. During his time at ODU, he was responsible for coaching the hitters, base runners, and outfielders and saw nine players selected in the MLB Draft.
During a record-setting 2017 season in which ODU went 19-11 in conference play and cracked the national polls for the first time in 10 years, Nonemaker mentored three freshman All-Americans, a C-USA Newcomer of the Year and C-USA Defensive Player of the Year.
Prior to Old Dominion, Nonemaker served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Monmouth University for two years, guiding the Hawks to the 2011 NEC regular season title while winning every league series durig the season.
A four-year starter at Vanderbilt from 1999-02, Nonemaker was a freshman All-American in 1999 and first-team All-SEC outfielder in 2000. His .415 batting average as a freshman in 1999 is the 18th best single-season average in SEC history (min. 200 AB) and 10th-best mark in the conference in the last 27 seasons (min. 200 AB). Nonemaker ranks second in career batting average (.369) and hits (283) for the Commodores.
A 20th-round draft choice of Philadelphia in 2002, Nonemaker went on to be a member of the Phillies Gulf Coast Championship team in 2002. In 2003, he split the year between the Lakewood Blue Claws (Single-A) and the Reading Phillies (Double-A).
A native of Roxbury, N.J., Nonemaker was a four-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection, graduating from Vanderbilt with a degree in Human and Organizational Development in 2002. He and his wife Katie have three daughters, Ellie, Ainsley and Mae.