Return to Clemson ‘emotional’ for West Virginia coach
Before every college baseball game, both head coaches meet at home plate with the umpiring crew to discuss several things.
When that meeting is over, Clemson coach Jack Leggett runs into a huddle of his own players and bounces around with them to fire his guys up. When the Tigers hosted West Virginia for the season-opening series last weekend, Mountaineer coach Randy Mazey had the same pregame ritual.
It’s just one of the ways Mazey, a former Clemson player and assistant coach, is similar to his friend and Hall of Famer Leggett.
“In coaching, you pick a little bit up from everybody you’re around and he’s no different,” Mazey said. “I model some the stuff I do after him and his work ethic. He just does a great job, and I’m happy for him and his program.”
Mazey, whose team won the series against the Tigers, has a relationship with Leggett that spans three decades.
“We’re friends,” Leggett said. “We’ve known each other for a long period of time.”
The two worked together as assistants on legendary coach Bill Wilhelm’s staff from 1992-93. Mazey, who hadn’t been back to Clemson in a decade before last weekend, spent four years total learning under Wilhelm before leaving Clemson to take the coaching job at Charleston Southern the same year Leggett replaced Wilhelm in 1994.
Mazey’s path back to Clemson has been a long and intriguing one. He played for Wilhelm from 1985-88 and finished his career with a .331 batting average, 20 home runs and 170 runs scored in 216 games.
“It has been a long time since I’ve been here,” Mazey said. “Things have changed a lot. Watching these guys run around the same bases that I ran around 30 years ago, it was kind of emotional. Watching the outfielders run up the hill, when I was out there the hill was a lot steeper.
“It’s great to be back and step on this field again.”
After taking CSU to the NCAA tournament in 1996, Mazey worked as an assistant at Georgia, East Carolina and Tennessee before returning to Greenville, N.C., to take over as coach of the Pirates in 2003. After going to three consecutive NCAA tournaments with ECU, including a Super Regional at South Carolina, Mazey was suspended and eventually stepped aside in 2005 for reasons neither the school nor Mazey have disclosed.
He latched on as an assistant at TCU, which went to the NCAA tourney ever year Mazey was there and made a trip to the College World Series in 2010. Mazey was hired by former West Virginia athletics director Oliver Luck in 2013 to take over a downtrodden Mountaineer program that’s gone 61-52 in Mazey’s first two seasons. He’s also overseeing the opening of a new baseball stadium.
It was a successful return to Doug Kingsmore Stadium for Mazey as the Mountaineers shut out Clemson 4-0 Friday, lost 4-2 Saturday and took the series with a 6-1 victory Sunday.
“It’s great to win, but such good friends with coach Leggett,” Mazey said. “You almost feel bad when you beat your friends. You’re competing against them, but there is so much on the line. Somebody’s got to win somebody’s got to lose.”
Note Clemson freshman right-hander Paul Campbell was suspended for the opening weekend for a violation of team rules. He’s eligible to play beginning with Wednesday’s 4 p.m. game against Charleston Southern.
This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 10:46 PM with the headline "Return to Clemson ‘emotional’ for West Virginia coach."