BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED

Gary Gilmore Explains Exactly How Coastal Carolina Scripted And Won The 2016 College World Series

• Ken Carpenter • Season 4 • Episode 15

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A holiday thank you turns into a masterclass on building a champion when Gary Gilmore, the recently retired head coach of Coastal Carolina, joins us to unpack how a mid-major beat the blue bloods in Omaha. From overlooked recruits to a dogpile on the final out, he takes us step-by-step through the strategy, the culture, and the belief that changed everything.

We start with the foundation: recruit athletes, not résumés; redshirt for strength and skill; and teach the details that win close games. Gary breaks down why regionals are a bullpen marathon and why Omaha rewards clarity and roles, then shows how Coastal became brutally hard to beat—leading the nation in home runs and sacrifice bunts while stealing bags, defending cleanly, and placing pressure in every inning. If you care about baseball player development, college baseball culture, or winning in the NIL and portal era, this conversation is packed with takeaways you can use tomorrow.

Then we go inside the moments that defined the run: the LSU Super Regional ninth inning where a freshman error threatened to derail everything, the bold 3–1 slider call, the perfect steal break, and the sequence that sent them to Omaha. Gary shares the postgame locker room where he asked his players to lock hands and eyes, then laid out a plan that unfolded almost pitch-for-pitch in the championship—converting an All-American reliever to start, bridging with the best inherited-run stopper in the country, and trusting a career starter to record the final strikeout as a reliever. Woven through it all is his why: lead with love, hold a high standard, and let belief carry talent further than pedigree.

If you’re a coach, parent, or player, you’ll leave with practical tools for culture-building, recruiting overlooked athletes, and preparing staffs for postseason stress. If you’re a fan, you’ll relive the chills of a true David vs Goliath story. Follow the show, share it with a baseball friend, and leave a quick review to help more coaches find it. What part of Gary’s plan will you try first?

Join the Baseball Coaches Unplugged podcast where an experienced baseball coach delves into the world of high school and travel baseball, offering insights on high school baseball coaching, leadership skills, hitting skills, pitching strategy, defensive skills, and overall baseball strategy, while also covering high school and college baseball, recruiting tips, youth and travel baseball coaching tips, and fostering a winning mentality and attitude in baseball players through strong baseball leadership and mentality.

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SPEAKER_01:

Hello and happy holidays from baseball coaches unplugged. I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter, and this episode is going to be going out on Christmas Eve. And I wanted to um take this time to go ahead and thank each and every listener that's tuned in to any of the 185 episodes that I've put out over the past four or five years here. And I I I can't thank you enough. I would never believe that people would want to hear something that I'd have to say. And and I couldn't have done it without all of the great guests that have taken the time out of their day, out of their coaching career and time to just go ahead and jump on the podcast here with me and talk about what they do that makes them so successful as a baseball coach. I really hope that it's been beneficial to you. And I think that uh there are so many great baseball coaches that share such great info. I think it's been truly my honor to be able to just sit back and like I've told some guests before, at the end of the podcast, it's almost like at the end of a baseball game, if if you walk away and you're like, who was who are the umpires? Say I uh you don't even remember who the umpires were. That's how I kind of try to feel like when I'm the host because all I'm trying to do is uh is uh honor the guest and promote the guest. And uh these people that have jumped on with me to talk baseball have been just unbelievable. I I I can't thank them enough. I want to keep uh going forward. Uh as many of you know, I've been uh battling a uh uh a disease that's uh been fighting for 15 years now, since 2010. And uh just working my way through another surgery, but I'm gonna try to keep going. But I wanted to uh also take this time to thank uh a podcast sponsor, and that's uh Will Minor and his team at the Netting Professionals. Without them, uh it'd be tough for me to continue to uh put the podcast out there because there are some expenses. And you know, Will Minor and his team at the Netting Professionals uh one day do such great stuff for baseball and softball, but uh they've uh reached out and uh sponsored me early on, and it it means so much and it it really helps me to uh keep this uh show going. And I thought, you know, I I wanted to put out a show and just uh talk about something and make it a short one, but I really think it would be more beneficial that if I share one of the podcasts from this past season that you may have heard it before. But uh maybe for a new listener out there, you may not have. And um it was my sit-down with uh Gary Gilmore. He was the uh head baseball coach at uh Coastal Carolina when the won the an incredible college world series, something they thought couldn't be done and he pulled it off. And it was probably the longest uh podcast episode that I have of the 185 that I've put out there, and it was just one of those where I was just mesmerized with the stories that he's able to share, the behind the scenes uh what goes on at Coastal Carolina and why Coach Snall and everything is still continuing on there at Coastal and what type of great coach that Gary Gilmore is. And it's uh amazing to just sit back and listen and pretty much that that's what I did in this episode. And I really think there are so many things you can pull from this if you're a coach, if you're a parent, if you're a player. This is a special episode from Coach Gary Gilmore at Coastal Carolina University. And as always, thanks again, everyone, to all my listeners and to all of the coaches who've taken time to be on the show. Happy holidays and merry Christmas. Here's Gary Gilmore at Coastal Carolina University. Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, I examined what it took for Coastal Carolina to win the 2016 College World Series in Omaha with recently retired head coach Gary Gilmore. It required fighting athletes that baseball blue buds overlooked, a strategy for developing players, and a culture built on belief and love. You'll want to hear the incredible story how Coach Gilmore laid out exactly what was going to happen in the final games of the College World Series Tutors players. A true David Virts Goliath story. Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken Carpenter, presented by Athlete One. Baseball Coaches Unplugged is a podcast for baseball coaches. With 27 years of high school baseball coaching under its belt, here to bring you the inside scoop on all things baseball. From game-winning strategies and fixing secrets to hitting drills and defensive drills, we're covering it all. Whether you're a high school coach, college coach, or just a baseball enthusiast, we'll dive into the tactics and techniques that make the difference on and off the field. Discover how to build a winning mentality, inspire your players, and get them truly bought into your game philosophy. Plus, get the latest insights on recruiting, coaching leadership, and crafting a team culture that champions productivity and success. Join Coach every week as he breaks down the game and shares incredible behind-the-scenes stories. Your competitive edge starts here. So check out the show weekly and hear from the best coaches in the game on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

SPEAKER_01:

This episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is powered by the Netting Professionals improving programs, one facility at a time. Will Minor and his team at the Netting Professionals specialize in the design, fabrication, and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, BP turtles, screens, ball carts, and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, and cubbies. The netting pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse, golf courses, and now pickleball. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707, or visit them online at www.nettingpros.com. Check out Netting Pros on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and look for a new episode every Wednesday. Coastal Carolina head coach Gary Gilmore takes us behind the scenes from the clubhouse to the dive out and even onto the field. And he shares what made 2016 such a magical season for the Chanticlairs. Vlogged under host, Coach Ken Carpenter. And joining me today is Gary Gilmore, retired head coach and college World Series champion at Coastal Carolina. Coach, thanks for taking time to be on baseball. Coach is unplugged.

SPEAKER_02:

Ken, I appreciate it and uh look forward to uh our conversation and uh I hope it's something uh that's worthy for people to uh listen to and uh get some knowledge from. Hopefully it'll uh make their life and day better.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, without a doubt, I I there's there's no doubt that that's gonna happen since I got you on the show. I'm been really excited uh, you know, once I found out I was able to get you on the show, and uh you know, I I I always like to figure out, you know, what can I start off with? And I I own I'm always curious about what do coaches do when they're not coaching, and you know, since retirement, what's your passion now?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I mean, I I'll be honest with you, I haven't like like truly latched on to any one thing or whatever. Uh you know, like being outdoors a lot. And uh, you know, one of the one of the things that I mean, obviously my some of my health challenges are out there, but you know, mainly too. I I I I I I miss so much of my own son and daughter growing up. And uh I've got four little grandsons, and I said, you know, I I don't I I as much as I love college baseball, and I I I mean I'm I'm I miss it a lot, but I I I I didn't want to go through life and um not know my grandchildren. You know, uh my wife's parents, my parents both loved our grandkids, but they, you know, they they were working and doing stuff. They they never really got a chance to really know their own grandkids, not the way I know mine already. You know, I mean, so you know, I uh you know, I kind of I you know kind of got uh highly persuaded and uh semi-volunteer to coach my my uh 11 year grandson's uh little travel team. So, you know, I've I've I've I'm I'm I call it the dark side. I've I I've gone over. So, you know, I you know, I swore I'd never do that, but it uh you know it's amazing just you know to be out there and get to be around him and uh you know practice with him some and and and do things with him, just just to spend time with them and and and be around the game of baseball. It uh makes that part fun for me. And you know, we live we live a couple blocks from the beach. My wife's a big beach girl, so you know we we we spend a time down there as well. And uh, you know, just pretty much anything outside that we can do. We do we you know uh she she's she does a ton of walking, and when she can drag me out of the house, she drags me out of the house. And I go with her because uh there are very few of those times during during the coaching career. It's just hard to whittle out consistent opportunities to do a lot of things that you know normal families do. You may you make you know, coaching, coaching it's seven days a week because I mean, you know, you go, oh man, I got I got Sunday off, we can do this and that, and you know, and it's during recruiting season, sure as tootin'. One of the guys is gonna run across somebody and go, you know, coach, I I I got him. He's gonna he's gonna come on campus on Sunday or whatever. And so you're the you're the guy, you know. If you're not out on the road as well, you're you're you're the guy back at campus. So you, you know, instead of spending a Sunday with your family, you spend it with someone else's family. And it's just, you know, it just it's it's just how it works. And uh, you know, I you have to be married to the right woman and have the right kind of family mentality to you know be able to cherish the little pieces we can chip out of uh the the career piece if you're a coach.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, reflecting on your career at Coastal, can you is there one single thing that uh was like you thought this is the most important factor for building that championship program?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh you know, I mean I I I mean when we started uh I had been very I had been very fortunate. When I when I went to USCA can out of Pro Bowl, uh Coach Wark already had a very a very good program. It was on the precipice of of being a championship caliber program. You know, the one thing he hired he he hired me, he told me, he said, uh, there's not a lot of money, you know, pay for you to go to graduate school. He said, the the one thing I want in return, he said, you know, we our our program, we have we have gotten right to the very top, but we can't figure out how to beat Coastal Carolina. And he said, I need you to bring that here. And I told him, I said, I said, well, I said, my answer to that will be the same thing as the answer you're asking me about Coastal Carolina. I said, I said, you you have to be thick skinned enough for us to develop a culture that's a little different. Because the culture, whatever you've done, is obviously good, but it's only gotten you to a certain point. But we we have to examine all the factors in the culture that you have, because the culture is gonna win. You know, and I said that you know when to answer your question, you know, it it it it took it took longer than I thought to really create the culture because we did not have we did not have the athletes here, regardless of culture. You you you can have the greatest culture in the world, but you know, if if you don't have X amount of athletes to execute that culture both on the field and off the field, it it doesn't matter what your culture is, you know, if ever everybody if everyone's doing 85 and all your all your athletes in the field run 7-2 in the 60, there well, we're we're we're just not gonna win many games because everyone else is just better than us. You know, we have to, you know, it is a deal we're you know, recruiting and bringing in athletic people and development. I mean, the core part of a cultural coastal Carolina during the time that I was there, and I can't imagine it ever changing with with Kevin being there. It's all about development. It is it's you know, I mean, there are very few players that ever came in there that had a skill set that could just in and of itself just you know play at a certain level. You know, I mean, my first year at Aiken recruited a guy named Roberto Hernandez, played 18 years in the major leagues and the top ten in saves in the history of college and in the history of uh major league baseball, pitched in three all-star games. He had never thrown a pitch in his life off the pitchers now. It'd been a catcher. Threw he threw, I think, three or four innings in the Valley League the summer before he came to us. And uh the good part about that part, Kent, uh, is that unlike maybe anyone else ever coached in my life, the fact that he had never pitched, he had been a catcher, he had the mentality of understanding how to pitch, but did not have the physical movements and mechanics and pitch repertoire to execute on the mound physically pitching. You know, most guys are the other way around. You see their physical pitching attributes, but understanding how to pitch, what to do, how to make an adjustment if you're just a tick off that day, how do I figure out how to you know right myself in the middle of a uh you know, middle of chaos and things like that. You know, so you know that that's just an example of of the part at Coastal that I feel like, you know, I mean, we we had to do. I I I mean, the the year I walked in at Coastal, they had won 17 games the year before. And you know, we we just we just didn't have the ability. You know, we have we had to go out and find some guys, you know, and and you know, the core group that kind of turned the program around uh was a well, you know, to a large degree, uh along with Coach Schnall, who played on one of those teams. Uh you know, it it came down to redshirting several. Well, we redshirted about six or seven freshmen one year, the very first year. And, you know, uh, or excuse me, the second year, because the first year I didn't get a chance to recruit. I just had to play with what we had. And so it was really our first recruiting class. Now we basically set most of them out and took another beating because putting them out there in games defeated the purpose. You know, it is in my mind. They weren't strong enough, they weren't skilled enough, they didn't have the things that they needed, but that group of guys bought into the culture, brought into the workout, all the things that became what coastal baseball stood for, that group bought into them. And as freshmen, you know, we we ended up uh losing in the in the conference championship game to a Liberty team that had several draft pick guys on it. They were they had a bunch of 22, 23-year-old, older guys on that team, big physical, talented, well coached. And you know, we took them, we took them to the second championship game, I think it was 13 innings, and we we we made an error that cost us the game. And uh, you know, it's uh you know, but from there, moving forward, then you know, we we got a taste of what it took to be good. And that that group basically led us to, you know, two years later we won a regional. Uh we took Georgia to the second championship game and lost in in 11 innings to those guys. They went to Omaha, and uh, you know, we should have won that game. They had a guy named Keppinger, hit three home runs in one game against us. And, you know, just uh one of those deals where uh, you know, not sure what I would do today, but I I I did I didn't walk in, I didn't walk him in the uh in the uh tenth inning with a chance to uh we're we're up by uh where they we had flip flop, we were the home team that game. And uh so they were the top of the, I don't know, it was the top of the 11th game where we lost. He got a two-run jack with two outs and two strikes on him. He had a two run homer. You know, we had first base open, and you know, I sit there and think about it now. Like, man, that goes against everything in baseball that you would ever do is the one tight run on the first base, and you're like, oh man, I'm like, this guy, there's no way this can't hit. three home runs in one game, you know, and low and ball he did, man. But uh, you know, I I'm uh I'm a huge huge uh huge huge faith-based person and uh I I I don't uh i it it wasn't God's right time for me you know I I I you know I I would have never I would have never kidnapped I would have never been able to stay at Coastal Carolina if we'd have won that thing and you know that would have been a like holy cow that's insane and if somehow we'd have gone to Florida State and beaten them the way Georgia beat them and gone to World Series I you know I mean financially man I was you know I was making less than forty thousand dollars you know at the time you know I I would have had no choice but to leave you know and I honestly I you I I always said it because I you know always preached that hey coastal is going to go to Omaha and this is how we're gonna do it whatever I you know I I'm pretty sure the one thing that uh the one thing that uh I do know that is a hundred percent that during my uh tenure there early in those early years that I was the only human being on the face of this earth that thought Coast of Carolina could go to Omaha. You know and so you know it uh you know it it there were a lot of there were a lot of bumps in the road.

SPEAKER_01:

Well you know I'm I guess that you know that ties into the recruiting side of things you know you you had to get the right people in place and what would you tell you know high school coaches right now and their players that about what it takes to be a D1 player I imagine it's gotta be you got to have the right mindset and you got to be willing to grind.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah yeah well I think that's that I think that's a saving grace of um not not that coast of Carolina will be caught up in the NIL and the portal and this and that but I mean the culture that I left the culture that Coach Schnall is continuing to uh embrace uh that culture is is an us culture and as long as you have an us all of us culture and can sell it where they all believe in it and all want to be a part of it you can still compete against cultures that have way more NIO money have way more people moving in and out of their programs and they're just they're just floating talent through for nine months you're you're you know you're you still can do what needs to be done to get to Omaha and once you get to Omaha anyone can win an Omaha because you get days off you get to recycle guys you get you know you you're you're not you're not for the most part you're not throwing you know your your midweight guy might not get an inning out there. You know it's it's it's three starters and your bullpen guys you're you're running the majority of the time you're running you know six seven maybe max eight guys out there that get through the whole thing in Omaha you know so you know it it's it's not I'm not saying it's easier to win out there. It's just way I think winning the a regional is far more difficult because you can play five games in three days or four days excuse me in four days five games in four days you know so recycling the bullpen guys and doing different you know I mean it's a completely different strategy that has to take place to you know to win those type settings and compared to you know getting to Omaha yes definitely and uh you know I I love what you said Darren I it's a shame that more of that's not uh seen I guess and it's the way you're saying you know the the tweets and the the stuff that's put out there and it's it's all about me you know it seems yeah it's you know I mean I I I I think the whole the whole thing Ken and my you know during you know a college coach for 29 years and believe it or not I think more has changed in the last 12 months and maybe you know in the last 15 or 20 years. With the portal, the NIL, the the rule changes, the numbers of coaches that you can have the number of recruiters you I mean you know you know I coached for 29 years where you know the only two people that can be out you know were me and one other assistant or the two assistants. I mean you know you you you're out there beating the bushes all over the country and it's two of you. You know now they got like half a dozen you know and and stuff but you know for players themselves what used to be developmental you you you know I I can look you I can look around at the programs that were huge developers of young talent you know our ours was I I feel like ours was one of the very best I mean we we had to take guys that simply nobody know very few people ever heard of to be very honest with you they you know you know my my my formula position player wise was we weren't athletes if I was going to make an error on judgment of a player it was going to be an error in judgment of them being an athlete versus a non-athlete you know I I felt like we could take athletes and develop them into players you know if a guy was a quick twitch guy a guy that could run and could move had movement skills and things like that then we could develop that guy into a player you know um you know obviously that wasn't a necessity nine guys through the order but I mean we had teams at times in at Coastal where all nine guys could run. We led this league in the country and stole the bases several times and uh all of that but uh you know that that was a product of of young players that were athletes that you made bigger and stronger but virtually almost I don't know the percentage I'd guess 75 to 90 percent of those kids red shirted for you they were they were they were a lot of them were northern kids and it had limited I mean travel ball wasn't what it is today I mean they had limited exposure they also had limited game experience and they had they had to first of all learn how to play the game but physically had to get to a point where their their just natural skill set could perform at a high level consistently and you know it obviously they would show you something in you know in in in camp and workouts and uh showcases that you go to and things like that. They would show you something but at the end of the day you know it it it it sorely needed to be developed. There are very few there it was almost in our program I mean it got to a point where you know I mean you know bringing a high school recruit in that was a real player you know they get around our players and they they would tell them like hey man it's it's tough to impossible to play here as a freshman you know the guy the guy the things that you have to learn to actually be a player here are it's gonna take you a while unless you're just insanely skilled. And eventually you know we get a guy we got on my kid in 2005 named Mike Costanza first round draft pick guy eventually you know he played as a freshman pitched as a freshman you know and from there you know he kind of set the bar of uh okay what's it take to to be uh a freshman to walk in here and play and then we have this guy and that guy you know in the Big South we went I think three or four years in a row where our freshman was the player of the year in the league but they were all redshirt freshmen. So they really like sophomores even though they'd not use the year of eligibility. But they were just bigger and stronger and and more skilled than everybody else's normal true freshmen you know so you know it was funny they had they actually in the league meeting uh one one year they go well we're tired tired of coastal's uh red shirt freshman winning the league we're gonna change the the role you have to be a true freshman I started laughing as uh I said okay that that that's fair I I get it but no it it was uh I mean that was that was a huge part of it you know and I mean a lot of that with the pitching too we just you know you you to to try to play the teams we were trying to play we we wanted to play Clemson's in South Carolina's North Carolina's Virginia uh as time went on when when when Oak got there uh teams like that were the teams we want to play but also we you know man we we loaded up our schedule with Kent State who was unbelievably good back in those days Delaware man they were on rock solid back in the day they were really really good George Mason you know I go on and off you know our our schedule was very difficult and you know uh I felt like we need to we need to develop to play the schedule not not to play the schedule develop play we we had to we had to be better so we had to do some things to get better we wanted to be able to play that type of schedule because we you know it it you know the big south at that time in the league was very top heavy there Winthrop was outstanding when Coach Hudak was there all those years and uh you know we just had uh you know when uh coach hare was at was at Campbell there at the end of the end of their time in the Big South man they were they were a handful as well Erweyham Southern Coach Shu I mean it was you know at the top end of the league you you you you had to be a top 25 top 30 team to compete at the top end of that league you know the bottom end of the league was not nearly as good you know but so but all all of that it it it every everything we did in the culture piece was surrounded by development first we had to recruit but also is you know we we we put a thing together you know uh you know we had two mantra words that uh we developed along the way of selfless and relentless and what that looked like on the field what it looked like in the classroom what it looked like at Walmart uh what it looked like in all walks of life how can you show your two mantra words and characteristics of the culture of coastal in every setting and we spent a lot of time teaching kids how to do that and uh you know it it it it it was a day it was dead it was different I you know I I I I got a you know they and it was a product of the staff and the players and everyone else it wasn't just me but I got a ton of personal compliments from faculty and staff and people just uh you know the yes ma'am no sir this that whatever they go wow man your your kids are the most courteous kids I've ever met that their manners are so amazing I said well you know that starts at home first you know but you know we we we want to be an extension of what what we feel like true culture and belonging to a to a group means that we we want to be different we want to be we want to we want to be able to be in a crowd and no one pay attention to us but also we want to be in a crowd where everybody goes well i i want to I want to be like that I want to act like that want to be like that and I think too much of that in our world has gone away to be very honest with you we we we're we're not like that anymore we hide behind a a phone screen or a computer screen or whatever with some fake name we don't have the you know we don't we don't have the inner fortitude to to stand up and go hey man I I it's me I'm accountable you know that was that was my mistake or that was this or that whatever I'm accountable good or bad it's it that's on me.

SPEAKER_01:

Well you you talked about it right there for me and and it kind of leads into my next question.

SPEAKER_02:

You you kept building and building and building you know regionals and then you finally win the World Series what what was that like and you know what made it so special um the uh I mean what makes you so special is people said we couldn't do it. You know I mean I mean there's still I I have it in in my scrapbook I have a a picture of it you know they you know they're we're playing the number we're opening up against the number one team in the country University of Florida. They have four first round we only saw three but we played them on that Sunday night and we saw three of their first round pitchers all in one night. Alonzo was the first baseman on that team there are a couple other big league position players I can't think of they go off top my head but they had a they had a fourth first rounder who didn't pitch that day against us you know ESPN gave us a chance of the chance to win the World Series 3.7% chance of winning all right so we're we're we're we're sitting there and you know I mean for me I'll be honest with you I I don't think I ever got nervous one second until the last pitch of the last game and we're like we're sitting there like damn man we're one pitch away from winning the World Series and there's dudes on second and third and it's a full count and there's two outs and I'm like holy moly man this are we are we really this is what's going on up until then I don't think I got nervous at all because it was like we're here no one expects us to be here and every single day Ken that we stayed there every single day you could you could feel it the players could feel it like coach man everybody started to pull for us everybody in the country when we got every day we would go to batting practice or whatever we had a our team bus was all wrapped in teal and black and coastal stuff all over whatever is all those team buses are we'd pull down the street you know game one I we we may have as we left the hotel and weaved our way through to where we were going to take batting practice we may have had a handful of real coastal fans that were were our normal coastal fans step out of a bar or whatever saw the bus and you know we're getting maybe 25 claps crawl going down there. You know about four games into it when we get into the deal where we're in the last four we gotta we have to beat um uh uh TCU we have to beat them twice to move on to the championship series I'll never forget it it was a night game and we're we're pulling up for VP and it was like every stoplight we stopped that it was just 50 70 five hundred people they come walking out of these they see our bus coming they start walking out they're out on the corners man shots up they're clapping like crazy by the time we got to the last game I'm telling you it was like a roadblock of people every stoplight it was unbelievable I mean I mean they even made comments on TV that you know at the at the end of the day if you weren't an Arizona fan you're definitely a coastal fan that there's a whole country against their Arizona because they were all coastal people and it it it honestly our players in our meetings would go coach I I feel like these people are picking us up. I feel like I'm walking on air there's so many people pulling for us that I that that you know I don't even know this and that I mean our in our own state I mean it's you know it's like you know I I don't mean this derogatorily or anyway or whatever I don't want somebody jumping on me over race or whatever but it you know I mean in some ways you know in the South you still have remnants of uh Civil War so to speak you know and in South Carolina that's kind of how I always describe the South Carolina Clemson deal when they play one another I mean you're you're on one side of the sand with the other you know and for that one series when we're playing Arizona and especially the last day when we're in a championship do or die take it all everybody took off the garnet in black they took off the the orange and the purple everybody in our state was teal and black for one day there may that may never happen in history again. It was that big a deal you know our governor broke hundreds of years of of of protocol at the state level and flew our coastal flag above the state flag it never ever happened before. Oh yeah oh if she called hell about she's called she called hell about you know I mean she ain't even got a coastal connection you know but it was that big a deal for for all of us I mean it was a you know I mean it was an incredible surreal moment for you know uh I mean you think about it at Kim and there there hadn't been a mid-major win win the thing in like 70 years. You know back to when you know there just weren't in the same remotely the same landscape of Division I baseball it is now you know I mean you know as back in the days when you know Army or Navy or somebody like that could win the thing because you know they could enlist the right group of guys and be the best team in the country or something. But you know it it's it it it was um I don't know honestly how to describe it. Um it it it was so special to me. Uh my father passed away three years before we got there and he was so instrumental in my life and uh My faith had like just taken this exponential step forward. And uh it played itself out during all this series. I honestly think that that you know that I honestly think it had a part of it, to be honest with you. I I I I really do. I mean, the things that the things that happen, Ken, I mean, you know, heck, I mean, we we we could talk for uh we we can have this conversation for like next several hours, but I I'll I'll tell you I'll tell you two things that happened and uh try to make them as quick as possible. But that's all right. We're we're we're at LSU and we had we hadn't spanked them the first game. And then game two, we're up two to one going into the top of the night. And you know, we had flip-flop home, you know, the way they the NCAA does it, we were the home team. And uh my second baseman, uh Lancaster, had uh busted his knee uh I tried to squeeze in a run in the in the bottom half of the eighth to give us a two-run leap. And and when he dove in the home plate somehow, he and the catcher got tangled, and he did, I forget what they called it, uh medial meniscus or something. He did something to his knee. He's out for the rest of the year. So I I I put a freshman in who had had played some early in the year because Seth had been hurt, and so I had to wait this young man. But once Seth got well, the kid didn't know the other young man. He he got scrapped at bat here and there for 40 some games in been in a game really. So I put him at second base, and we go out there and and you you can only imagine what's happening. We're three outs away from Maha, the the you know, the the pinnacle of of what we're trying to achieve. And first pitch, three hop. I'm telling you, it was a fungo. I could not fungo a ball in rhythm more easy to catch than that ball. Smackdown. It might as well hit a Teflon skillet. You know, it was it hit his glove, it bounced down here, sat right at his feet. He went to grab it, he toppled it, dropped it, picked it up, threw it wide of first base, guy gets off. Well, you can imagine, listen, man. They had 18,000 people in that joint. All right. I'm telling you, our dugout, the concrete dugout was vibrating. It was like that much stuff going on, you know. And so, you know, we we had we had done an amazing job of keeping our focus and cool and and keeping all that stuff away from us. You know, we you know, we we watched for love of the game a couple of times, and you know, at least the the excerpts of Kevin Costner and like you know, uh control the mechanism, you know, and make all that other stuff out there, all those people screaming at you and hollering at it and make it go away. We're just playing the game. Lo and behold, my pitcher, four pitches later, there's a wall. So it's first and second. Now, I mean, you know, they they have one, they have the fastest guy in college baseball coming up. What's he do? He lays down a 25-foot bunt that's about three inches from the foul line. I mean, you know, I I had a guy that played in the big leagues at third base, and Remillard made a hell of a play. And I mean, we we knew he was bundling, we still couldn't get him. And so the kid cut the kid that made the original error, he made a play at first base that I'll be honest with him. But this ball comes up into him and forces him into the running lane. This guy just absolutely bulldozes him. I'm telling him, he comes up, he's got blood everywhere, whatever, but he kept the ball in front. Ball gets by, they score multiple runs. They scored one run and ended up with guys at second and third. Well, the next thing we what happens? Round ball to the pitcher, they don't run. My pitcher doesn't check third base. He catches it and actually threw a grenade to first base. I mean, my third could have walked on. He couldn't walk. Well, then we then we go, then then we get a walk. The bases are loaded now, one out. And my pitcher goes three and one on a pitch hitter. My pitcher's right-handed, left-handed pinch hitter, real good fastball hitter. My pitching coach looks at me, he says, Coach Thomas says, he says, Gilly, you okay if I throw a slider here?

SPEAKER_03:

I said, huh?

SPEAKER_02:

Well I said we just we've walked two guys already, and it's three and one. We're getting ready to walk in the tying run. He said, This guy, if we throw a fastball here, this guy's gonna crunch it.

SPEAKER_03:

I see.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, man. I said, uh I said, God brought us this far. I said, take it on, brother. He throws a slider and the guy swung out of his rear end and he missed it. And then he climbs the ladder with a 92 mile an hour fastball, four-seamer, and the guy who's looking for the slider again, threw it right by him. I mean, completely full, punched him out. Next pitch, fly ball to left field, and then the fun begins. Tie game. We come in, bottom of the ninth. I got the leadoff guy up, and then my third-round draft pick, shortstop pass. So they come in. I grab, I told my pitching coach, I said, get those two guys over here to me right now. Just grab them. I'll meet them in the on-deck circle. So I got my Anthony Marks, who was our fiery little left-handed hitting left fielder. He's he's putting on all his junk. I turned my hat around. I got this close to his face. I said, You see this, baby? You look in these two things right here. I said, You do not do anything but focus on my eyes and hear my voice. I said, Anthony, I said, I know 1,000% how this is gonna play out. I said, you're gonna get the first base. The only thing I don't know is how you're gonna do it. I don't know if you're gonna get a hit, a wall, hit by pitch, error. I have no idea. I said, but look in my eyes. I said, can you see yourself in the first place? And he's like, Yes, coach. Yeah, coach, I'll do it, I'll do it. I said, You go up there and have the best at-bat you've ever had. And I said, When you get the first, I said, we're gonna do something we haven't done all year. Okay. I said, in this situation, we've almost always bunted. We're leading the country and sacrifice bunts and home runs with that team. We had the best home run in any team, but we also sacrifice bunning more than anybody else. I said, we're gonna do something different. I want you to get the best lead you've ever gotten. You've been in this program five years, son. And we've talked about face stealing, face stealing, face stealing. You've never been my best face stealer, but you will be today. Because you're gonna get the best lead you can. You're gonna give me the best steel break you've ever given me, and you're gonna get second and be safe. And he's like, Yeah, I'm ready to go. So he starts heading up to the plate. Pai as Pai as the shortstop, he's hitting second, and he's not a very good burner. It didn't play into my thought process because I had been praying, man. I've been praying the whole game. I mean, I sat there the whole game playing, God, whatever your will is, whatever, just don't let me screw this up, God. Don't let me mess it up. I don't want to say something or do something that's not coming from you. So you put the words in my mouth, you put them in there. And so as soon as March walked away from me, Fayez looked at me, he goes, Coach, I got it. He goes, I know. He goes, I know I haven't been a great butter, but I will get you a great button. Mikey, that's not what I need today. I said, that's not what we're doing today. I said, when Anthony gets to second, I'm not gonna butt him to third. I said, I know we probably should. I'll tell you what, you know what? You're our best player. And I believe in you. And I said, you look in my eyes, see the belief, you see it in my eyes. I said, it's coming from a higher power than me. I said, you see it. You find the pitch you like, you put your swing on it, I guarantee it, they take the senses to all. I went to I went to the third base coach's box and talked with nobody else. Anthony Marks fought off five just absolute bastard sliders from their reliever after he got him 0-2. He kept fighting pitches off. Ends up having a nine pitch at bat and walks. He goes to first face, takes a good aggressive lead. He has a 3.19 steel break time. All right. To put that in perspective, that's in the top 1% of Major League Baseball steel break time. All right. I mean, that's the elite of the elite. That's insane. All right. So he gets a second. And anybody that ever watched us play that series, I mean, that game, especially, that that this determination in his face when he gets a second, and he looks at his teammates and he's just pounding his chest, looking at those guys. The very next pitch, they hadn't moved no third baseman in up on the grass. Mike Paez is in a in a in a 0-1 count at the plate, and a guy throws him a slider. Pitch he pitched all honesty. He don't hit very good. So I don't know why the heck he even swung it in the dead thing, but he hit it. And it was one of these top spun bouncers to third. One hop, two hops on the second hop. It had so much top spin, it went boom a little, little big. It went over the kid at third. It missed his duell that much. And he goes down in the left field line, and Marksy had to hang hold up for a second, thinking he might catch the ball. He couldn't just break and go. So, you know, he he comes around in third. I mean, their kid left had a really good arm. I mean, he air mailed it all the way to the plate, and I'm telling you, it it if it would have been low, I'm not sure. We're probably out, but it was like head high, and he had to apply the tag, and we beat it, and got in underneath it, and you know, we go to Omaha. But I I'm I'm telling you, the amount of praying I did in during that game, I was way more worried about doing something that took away from my kids having a chance to win than anything else. That was the one thing I like. Like, oh yeah. If if I do all the right moves and we lose, I'm I I I I'm I'm good with it. I can handle it. Not asking you to make the decision, just continue, God, just continue to be in my head, continue to give me great confidence and in my abilities that you've given me and the things that you've done that that you're at the end of the day, that the things I sing and do with these guys, that it is the will that's what you want them to do. And if they don't perform and and win, then we just don't perform and win. But we do the things that we should do. Well, we get to Omaha, and we get, I mean, this goes on to a lesser degree in basically every game. I mean, I'm constantly anybody that would do a documentary on us and go back through all the footage of our games, they would see me on the top step on the rail, and my hands would be like this. And if you watched me at third base outside of giving signs, the majority of the time I would be there instead of here or here or whatever, you'd see this. And the whole constant time, I'm going, God, just your will be done. We lost some of those games, you know. So it wasn't like, okay, well, if I do this, we win. It wasn't how it worked. Well, we we losed Arizona in game one. So, and our pitching because we had gotten in the loser's bracket, we had played Thursday, Friday, Saturday at Sunday off. Now we had to play Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We had to play six games in seven days. That's hell for anybody. Yeah. So uh, so I never forget coming out of the press conference. We uh you know, I walked through the locker room or through the locker room in the you know, the players' locker room was on the left, the coach's one was on the right. Well, everyone was in the main locker room. So I had all my stuff. So I I went in from the office. I told him I said, as I walked by, I said, uh, guys, give me five minutes. I'll be back here in five minutes. I went in that locker room that was the coach's head coach's locker room. I locked the door behind me, threw my bag up in the locker, and got down on my knees and put my elbows on my locker lid, and uh, I just prayed. And I just go, God, what do what do I say? I I walking by that, it was there was devastation in that in that room. It just completely devastated. I said, God, you got to help me have a plan. We're down in pitching, we don't have many moves I can make. I know some moves that I can make, but I don't think physically are gonna give us a chance to win. So I need to hear your voice. I need you to help me with a plan. Well, I walk back in there and nothing kind of initially nothing there. So I I just start talking, and then all of a sudden, this this first idea pops into my brain. And I said, guys, let's stop for a moment. I think this is more important. I said, we came here as a group, the whole entire group of people on a mission, and I've told you a million times the power of our 27, all believing together, all working together, all loving each other together is more powerful than a team that's more talented that doesn't have that. I said, we proved that down the this these last 21 games were 19 and we're 19 and 2. You know, I said, and a lot of these teams have more talent than us in certain spots for sure. So I said, this is what I want you to do for five minutes. I want you right now. I said, we were in a kind of in a square. I said, reach reach to the guy left of you and right of you. Grab his hand. I said, we've been doing this all week. I said, let's spend five minutes. Look at each one of your brothers, left of you, right of you, cross away from you. You you lock eyes with them for a minute. And you see the love and caring that's in each one of us, that they're your brother. Regardless of what happens, move forward. They are your brother for the rest of your life. And that we're gonna, if we're gonna go down, somebody's gonna have to take down the power that exists in this world. And so they did that for like five minutes. And to be very honest with you, I'm sitting there going, like, okay, God, I we still don't have a plan, guys. There's still a plan. Well, at the end of five minutes, it was really, I mean, I mean, even my assistant guys that were there, I mean, Coach Shirley told us this, Gilly, I get goosebumps every time I ever think of this. He goes, You told us that day in that locker room how we were gonna win the World Series, and he said, damn near to the pitch. Because I told him, I said, uh, guys, I I've got a plan. And I said, This plan was not just me. I said, I'll be honest with you, I uh I cheated. I'm I'm I'm I'm asking for a whole lot of help from above. And I said, this is the plan that I feel like it's a plan that's I'd be in urged to use. So hear me out. I said Mike Morrison, our first team All-American, and I think he was a what seventh or eighth round draft pick guy. Mike Morrison has been a reliever all year. But he's all he's relieved one inning, he's relieved five innings. I said, you know what? Mike, if we're gonna lose tomorrow, I want to lose with you on the pictures now. Because I feel like you're our best guy. Outside of Beckwa. You're our best guy. I took a ball over and I handed it to him. I said, Mike, I challenge you as a man. I said, This is what all of the rest of us in this room need. We need you to go six complete innings and don't hand us that damn ball back until you reach pitch a hundred. And I said, when you do give us the ball back, there's gonna be guys on base. And I said, Bobby Holmes, you're our best guide bullpen wise in the whole country. You've only let one inherited runner score all year. They're handing you the ball. So you're finishing the game. I said, I love the rest of you pitchers. I love you all. But I can tell you right now, you're not pitching tomorrow. These two guys are going to win the game tomorrow. Andrew Beckwith, you're going to throw the championship game. You have thrown two complete games in the College World Series. You are the best player in the whole country right now. Dude's 15 and 1 with a 1 point something ER. I said, but you know what? I'm asking you to throw on two days short rest. You pitched last time and threw 140 pitches on one day short rest. He was a subby guy. So, you know, that's a whole Denver story. You know, I only got 140 pitches in my life. But he I he we might got in a fight in the Doug out on national TV because I wanted to take him out. And he kept telling me that that Friday game against TCU, he goes, he goes, I'm like a girl softball pitcher. I throw down here. I can throw every day down here. And he he he told me, seventh inning, eight inning, and ninth inning. He told me in that game, Ken, he said, coach, you call a fastball, first pitch. If it's not above 90 miles an hour from up top, then you come get me, take me out. I'm done. Hell, he only threw 90-91 to begin with. And he's all these pitches into the game. You're like, shit, you can't do it. Yeah, he did. Three innings in a row. Yeah, 91, 90, and 90. Three innings in a row. First pitch in the inning to get to this point. Well, so I told Dap, I said, we called him Dat. I said, Dap, when you pitch with all this all these innings, I said, you're not going to get another complete game. I said, as much as I love you, you're not going to get a CG again. I said, I need you to get us into the sixth inning. And I said, when you do, there are going to be guys all over the bases and there's going to be chaos. And I said, Bobby Holmes, you will have just thrown between two and three innings the day before to finish up behind Mikey. I said, son, I need you, whatever it is. Just one out, two outs, three out, whatever it is that that can't get done. I need you somehow to be that guy. Alex Cunningham, our number two starter, who he he was a top 10 round draft pick guy. I said, AC. I said, you know what? I said, you've had a whole career here and never thrown out of the bullpen one time. And I said, you also have the distinction of being a guy that pitched as a starter in high school in three state champions, three straight state championship high school games, and you lost all three of them. This is your opportunity to throw the last pitch in the College World Series and win the national championship. And you're gonna do it. Game one, Mike Mike Morrison threw 106 pitches. He's ahead one run, he's got guys on second and third. Uh oh no, first and second, and uh two outs. Bobby Holmes comes in, gets him out, gets him out of that, and he pitches two more innings. So he went two and a third. The next day, back with got us into the sixth inning. Faces are loaded with two outs, and uh Holmes comes in. Guy hits a line drive rocket at our first baseman. He smits, he's he snatches it out of the air, get out of that. And Cunningham, who never ever finished one of these games in his life, goes three innings, strikes the last guy out of a four to three game with Met on second and third, and a full count. He punches the guy out and we win. He told them to that that it's like I mean, you know, you can't make that stuff up. You know, I mean, it's you know, I mean, both both Paez and Marx, every time we're ever together, we'll look, we'll look at each other, and you know, both of those kids are fairly emotional, and they will both, every single time we talk about it, they'll both start crying. Coach, you told us what we were gonna do. You told us what was gonna happen before. How did you do that? I said, well, I don't think it was me. I said I'm just being with you. I said, I said, I was so much into the faith piece that I had such confidence in whatever was coming into my brain that that it was coming from the guy that I wanted to give all the glory to. I said, because it because that that that's all I ever kept telling them. You know, listen, uh I will not take one grain of sand of you know credit for doing this. Is this is all you. So just you know, what whatever comes of this, myself and our players, you you will be the you you as I as our Lord will be the one hoisted up on the platform, not us. You know, I said that that that is what this is all about. And I mean, the kids bought into it, and I mean it it it was so many things came into that whole group, Ken. I mean, we started, I think we maybe had four or five guys that were believers. By the time we got done, we probably had three-fourths of the team with were guys that were were believers. And I mean, it it just uh it was just another way for them to bond, you know, to be very honest with you. It was it was an unbelievable experience, and and to experience it the way that we did, you know, I mean, you know, honestly is uh you know, it was a sports version of a David and Goliath type deal, you know, to be very honest. I mean, we had no, you know, I mean Arizona, what what's their what's their program? What like six or seven national championships of baseball? I mean, you know, just you know, Florida's got, you know, all those first round drive picks, TCU's got all these guys, Texas Texas. I mean, you know, we're sitting there, you know, and and yet we just kept playing the way we've been playing. We just made it very hard for you to beat us because we, you know, we were first in the country in home runs, first in sacrifices. We were, I think, third or fourth in defensive field team. And our ERA was one of the best ones in the country, stolen bases. We, you know, I think we were like seventh or eighth in the country in stolen bases. So, you know, when you played us, you know, you you we we were a handful, man. You know, I mean, you know, it's you know, okay, we play a two to one game. You you you you better be able to do all the other facets of the game. You know, you worry about keeping the ball in the park. I mean, you know, we you know, we got six guys with, you know, you know, 17 plus stolen bases. We got this, we can beat you with that. You know, we're very proficient at not only getting bunts down, but placing them where they're very difficult to defend. You know, it's one thing to get a bunt down, it's another to put it, you know, two, three feet away from the foul line and go, okay, hey man, let me see if that pitcher can get off that pitcher's mouth. Because he fielded one button travel ball his whole entire career. Let's see if he can make that play. And yeah, stuff like that. But uh it was uh, you know, to to you know, I know it's been uh probably a 20-minute long-winded answer to your question, but uh it has been that that you know for that group of kids, uh you know the the team this past year, uh unbelievably talented, had fantastic pitching and played great defense and had enough offense to to win a national championship. It's just you know, it was it was different, you know. And there can never be another team that did it the way we did. You know, it it really was. I mean, you know, I I so enjoyed watching them play this year, so many of the the facets and culture of what had been Coastal Carolina for so long or whatever, you know, was right back at the forefront, and they did so many things. It's just the things on the side that happened with me and my expressing these things with our players. I mean, uh I I I don't I don't know how you uh ever surely not somebody can practice, you know. Just you know, I mean it never happened in my lifetime ever before and never happened afterwards in in that type manner ever, ever again, either. It was just like we were just locked in this you know, in this spiritual work that I feel like led us to where we got to. I I I I really did. I truly feel like I will I'll go to my grave wholeheartedly believing that that was some form of divine connection going on there that that maybe all it was just helped me be the best coach I could be. I I don't I don't know. I have no idea what it was, but I I'm telling you what, you know, you you look around and as a coach, and just like what you're doing with your podcast about touching lives and and and making a difference in lives, that group of people saw a side of me, they saw a side of their teammates, they saw a side of a group of people believing in something and believing in each other and loving each other. So many of the biblical things that the Bible is about is we're a part of our team. And they saw that and experienced it. And for all of them, that they they all, you know, when we ever get together, they always like, man, because you have no idea how that impacted my life. You know, it's you know, just you know, obviously the winning and all that was it is and still is what it was. It's just when I sit back and and think about what we all did together and the things you shared with us and the staff and everybody else buying into what we're doing, just we were so incredible, you know. That that the impact that you made on us and our ability now to try to use that impact and exponentially spread it and move it is is a value.

SPEAKER_01:

It's amazing the the power of belief. I mean, you you're telling that story, and I can recall watching the game on TV, and you know, I'm I'm sitting here on the edge of my seat just you're going through telling it. And you know, sometimes you know, I I've never been to any broadcast school or anything like that, but sometimes the best thing I can do when I'm doing these podcasts is just shut up and listen. And and you know, I I was like, don't say a word because this this is just too good. And you know, I I was hoping if it's possible, I I have two more questions for you. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I'm good. I'm good. Um, well, actually, I want to make it three. And the first one is uh is a quick one, but I ask it of every guest. Um, hate losing or love winning?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I'm a terrible loser. Uh yeah, I I I don't know. Uh yeah, that I I love winning, but the losing part, the losing part, uh yeah. My my wife, my wife early in my children's lives, made me quit playing board games and different things with my kids, but we played to win. Yeah, yeah. She goes, you know, they're only like four. Yeah, hell they gotta learn they gotta learn how to play. Let's go, you know. I'm not kind of no slight. I just you know I learned a lot. I I learned I I learned more lessons losing than I did winning. To be honest. I really no and and I can't say that I'm proud uh how I well, you know, how I reacted to losing at times.

SPEAKER_01:

I I did a little research and you know, as great a coach as you are, it almost didn't happen, right? Because you I I really wish you could just tell the story about where you were like, I'm done with baseball and you were going to be I was a PE teacher.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah, well, you know, it was uh where where where where I was so locked in during that 2016 season, even before we got on that run to go to Omaha, you know, about my faith and all that I probably was as faith-driven as I was then back in I think it was the second or third year I was here at Coastal. But yet I wanted it was more about me than it was about us, if that makes sense to you. Uh I had a lot of struggles with the fact that we were losing. Um administratively, Coastal was um just simply not willing to help with the funds that it took to try to build the program. You know, it was kind of right at the start of when people were starting to put a little bit of money in today's fall and see things like that. I mean, we had scholarship, our operating budget was terrible, our stadium was horrible. You know, I mean we we had we had some strikes against us, and and that old adage of um, you know, God's gonna do things according to his schedule out of course of yours. Oh yeah. I wasn't willing to be patient. I wasn't a very faithful steward at that point in time. Uh I went to church, read the Bible, prayed a lot, but I also was selfish about, okay, well, I'm doing all these things and uh when's my turn? You know, when when are when are we gonna do this? When are we gonna do that? And I you know, I just I I got so beat down because uh honestly exactly the question you just asked, you know, you know, better winner or better loser, you know, and and you know I I was definitely not not a better loser, and it it it beat me down. Um uh I saw things in the eyes of a negative person, you know. I mean, the glass was half full, whereas I'd lived my life being half full. But now it was you know half empty ever how you wanted to look at it. You know, it it was I'm looking at the bottom end, not the top end. And you know, it uh it just got to a point where uh I'm going, you know, they're not they're not they're not giving me money to recruit with. I have to use my own car. Um I have to uh you know, heck, I had a massive head-on accident and on a beltway in DC. I don't know how I lived through that. Uh so many things played into it, and then I'll look up and I'm uh man boy, you're making$34,000, and you're working 12 months a year, seven days a week, all the time, always, and your wife is making three thousand dollars more than you and enjoying the whole summer off, enjoying the vacations and the Easters and the you know the labor days and whatever, you're out doing camp and beating the bushes and doing all that. Oh man, yeah, this this ain't this this isn't worth it. And you know, I never forget. I mean, I had the contract, it was that North Myrtle Beach Middle School. I was gonna be a PE teacher. Okay, if that's what it's gotta be, it's what it's gotta be. At least I'll be able to spend time with my family and coach my own kids and do my own thing or whatever. I I just yeah, I just feel like that's where I'm at. And so on the way to hand it in, instead of mail it, I'm driving down uh main strip down here to get to 17 to go north and go north Myrtle Beach. Uh 501 is uh where my church is. And so uh honestly, it was like I'm kind of like I'm crying the whole time because I don't want to do it. I don't know why I'm doing it. I'm like, why am I doing it? I'm sitting here crying. If it was right, I should be happy, you know, and so for whatever reason, I don't know. I don't know if God pulled the steering wheel to the right or if I turned it to the right. I honestly do not know. But for some reason, I ended up at our community church, and I walked in and I asked, said, Is there any chance Ronnie's here? Ronnie Bird was our pastor, and uh he's also a personal friend. I mean, we'd gotten in the three years we'd been there, we he was growing this church, and you know, my wife and I had been uh you know, been a part of doing a lot of stuff there, not not money-wise, but volunteering and doing things like that and stuff. And his family, their ages were the same as as my kids, so they got to be all of them really good buddies. So we were very close. And thank God I thought a lot, man, he was there. He was there. Yeah. We we talked for at least two hours. maybe more about this and that whatever and you know I I still remember tearing that contract up in his office but to this day I still remember that feeling of like okay that was you know he he just he just made me realize that that I I I can't expect God to step forward on my timetable just like you know you go back then to 2006 2010 had a team that was 55 and 8 and we don't make it to Elbow we ended up having five major league players off that team my son was one of the draft picks on that team that that killed me absolutely kill me I'm going all this hard work all this stuff going back to I mean I'm thinking about tearing the contract up and doing all this God did that to see if I would be humble to him that I would follow him without question that I would be a disciple for him and here he is gonna give me this moment he's gonna allow me to go to Omaha with an incredibly talented team but also my son to get the experience that there's nowhere going there's no shot we're not going and then we don't go and I'm telling you man that in my life if there's ever been a point where you toss the towel in it it was it was there. I'll be honest I mean I I I just like this fee you know I mean I won't you know on top of that it would have been the opportunity to to key to you know kill the evil giant University of South Carolina who we had been a branch school of from inception until you know a few years before you know we'd been USC at Coastal Carolina we had at a part of their system we had not been to our school and you know just you know it it I I'm thinking man this is this is this this this is the perfect store you know we're everything that it could ever possibly work the right way I I couldn't have drawn this up you know and here I am not being faithful the way I should be at times because of this and that and and doubting that God had me and this and that so you know it it it was it was it was very it was that all that was so very interesting because I feel like I had no idea the things that happened at LSU and then Omaha I wasn't prepared for I wasn't prepared for him to be in my life at that type of level so to speak you know and so you know I think he surrounded me on several occasions in my life where I could have I could have very well gone down a different path and he had other people faith through him people step into my life and changed me you know uh one of the key things that happened in 16 uh a good buddy of mine bought bought me a book uh a guy named Mark Roach uh who was our developmental guy here he he had played baseball at coastal and and and stuff and uh youth baseball guys our assistant AD uh for a while then got into development and he put a book on my desk one day over the summer of 15 uh by Todd Gongworth called Lead for God's sake that book changed my life and I encourage anyone who listens to this podcast buy that book the$9.99 and if it doesn't have a significant impact on your life you tell Ken oh you I'll marry you the$9.99 yeah I I cross the board if it's a thousand up I'll I'll mail it to you that's the best one of the best books I've ever ever read you know and and it is is it's uh you know it's a just an incredible book and out of what that book taught me it's basically teaching you about seeking your why W H Y and why why are you here Ken Why is Gary Gilmore here? Why did God put us on this earth? What is it that he's asking of us and our faithfulness to him what what is it he's asking and you know one of the things for me that came out of that book was that the most important thing that he put me on this earth for was to develop a relationship with white put in coaching gave me an opportunity to have relationships with 40 plus players every single yeah a lot of times steady staffs occasionally a change here and there but for the most part I gotta touch 40 lives every single year for 39 total years and in that there's so many aspects of relationship one of the things that came out of it for me was that I needed to be able to openly tell my players in all settings that I love them. Whether they succeeded they got the hit they threw the innings to win the game whatever it is they make a Dean's list they make this whatever whatever setting it is we're walking down the hallway walking down the sidewalk or campus we pass each other I need to look them up look up over CO love you man and just keep walking and so that that they know and understand in my heart they're just like my children I I love them unconditionally none of them are perfect I'm surely not perfect but that that through love we can create a dynamic power that other people cannot circumvent if we truly love one another because the one thing that happens when you do that when you have a group especially a baseball and probably can say that about a lot of sports or whatever or your pinning or your teammates when a guy in front of you fails the guy behind is love you man I'm gonna pick you up right here I got you and you can look you I a week ago play by play for the last those last 21 games of coastal 2016 season I can show you where this guy failed in a big setting in a big moment he failed the next guy picked him up over and over and over again and you can watch them tell each other that mess every time when they doing this or that I mean it's it it's amazing you know and if one of them were to call me right now I'd pick up the phone call first thing out of any of them's mouth that played that's played in this program. Coach I love you that'd be the first thing that comes out of their mouth and that's probably of all things in life I could take all the churchies all the accolades all things I I I would cherish that love you more than anything. And can you share how the Brooks and Dunsong red dirt road became a part of baseball coach Thomas my pitching coach was a big time music buck. All right and uh so you know all the players had walk-up songs or whatever you know and he he he was just he was just oh he says gill you gotta have one stuff you know he said yeah man you walk up there's a you know you turn in the lineup card of the um fire you you you need your walk up song to fight man I said so he kept drilling me and grilling me or whatever and he said he said what one song tells everybody who you are and what you're about I said I you know I said I really don't know I said there's a bunch of songs I love and this and that I said but you know I said red dirt road probably tells us about as much about my life as as anything about how I you know I said man I grew up in the country on a farm I said I grew up on a red dirt road man I said I said I learned to drink beer on that road I learned uh you know I learned to chase girls on that road I said I rode my my my little uh mountain bike to elementary school on that road I said all my all my buddies that lived on that road I said that that red dirt road man I said I said I I learned everything about life on that road I said that road it it it ran several miles and I said yeah I said so many things in my life happened on that on a red dirt road I said that's it and next thing I know they're playing that thing and uh I mean it's it's crazy I mean it it it it really is I mean it was it was really cool last year or two years ago what it is now you know kind of doing doing my final hurrah that last year I mean so every every single team we played on the road their coaches every one of them did something to me or for me and whatever it was so humbling and this and that but basically every one of them played my red dirt road or the whole flight on the road it was it was it was really it was very cool to be honest. I mean our players even got into it I mean they were like holy cow you know just you know I just I just um I never really realized at the time can I feel like I'm an insanely humble person. I I never seek attention never want attention uh nothing I ever do do I do it for attention but you know for so for all of those guys and so many people in this profession that reached out to me and not to just congratulate me on being able to retire and a good career but hey man your life impacted mine and just want to say thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah that's uh that's just about every coach I get on the podcast they they they talk about the relationships probably more than they talk about winning any game or or anything else in their their coaching career. And you know I uh I spoke to you prior to the podcast and uh both of us are you know we're we're facing some very challenging surgeries coming up here and you know I I I want to wish you the best of luck and you know we're you know thinking of you praying for you and you know you're you're just truly a class act. I I met you uh years ago when I took my team down to Myrtle Beach at Buckeye Valley and you didn't know me from a man in the moon and and you took the time to talk to me and I you know this is just one of the big thrills of me getting a chance to to do this podcast to be able to have you as a guest and you know I I I can't thank you enough and you're clearly one of the best to ever step in a dugout at the college level and you know you won a college world series but more importantly you're you're just a a class act and a and a great person and thank you so much for joining me here on baseball coaches unplugged.

SPEAKER_02:

Well I I'm very humbled and honored that that you asked me and uh I did o to the prayer for you and and your challenges in hell and uh you know I I I do I do think there are times when uh God gives us challenges like the ones that we have to really draw us super near to him and to put you know our life and in the will of his hands. And you know I I keep telling people that you know this is going to go south on me when he feels like my work here is done. And I I I feel great you look awesome you're working still getting it done and and and doing things as long as God has has things for us to do he's gonna find a way to keep us there and we we just have to trust in him and I'm gonna sure keep you in my prayers every every night as well and hopefully can we can do this again at some other time and uh you know one thing that would be fun if for me is uh you ever put a podcast together and we'll we get five or six of us coaches on at the same time we can have we can have a lot of fun and uh thanks and I think you can have some some very uh cool questions and put us on spot a little bit and uh guys would you guys would be uh all over each other so uh it'd say probably be one of the more popular podcasters are out there.

SPEAKER_01:

Well absolutely if you put the guest list together and and I'll I'll take care of the others the other part I'll I'll I'll do that.

SPEAKER_02:

I'll think about that for a little bit and uh uh think of uh four or five guys that you know that I know that would be an absolute hoot on here and uh you know I I I honestly think because all all these all podcasts are great but the ones where there are multiple people on there and you kind of you know especially when they know each other and they know things about each other or whatever and they can get a dig in here and there it's it's actually uh uh very knowledgeable but it's also a lot of fun yes I'm all in so coach I thank you again I I really do appreciate this oh you're so welcome and uh may God be with you and uh be with all the people that listen to this and uh appreciate you much my friend special thanks to 2016 College World Series champion for the coastal Carolina Chantaclears Gary Gilmore for joining baseball coaches unplugged.

SPEAKER_01:

Be turned tune in every Wednesday for a new show today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is powered by the Metting Professionals improving programs one foot solely at a time contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at www.mettingprose dot com as always I'm your host coach Ken Carpenter thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged

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Ken Carpenter

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