That’s a wrap: Gary Gilmore, retiring as Coastal baseball coach, reflects as season ends
Gary Gilmore knows that one day he’ll be out and about and “Red Dirt Road” by Brooks & Dunn will start playing and he’ll feel the tears welling up in his eyes.
“And I’ll probably break down, to be very honest with you,” he said Sunday.
But as Gilmore, the legendary Coastal Carolina baseball coach, conducted his final news conference as the leader of the Chanticleers, he emphasized those emotions will come later and he didn’t view his impending retirement as a “sad thing.”
“It’s an opportunity in life to chase some other dreams and do some other things,” Gilmore said. “I put my heart and soul into this for 39 years. And I’m proud of what we’ve done.”
Gilmore, 66, who announced last spring he’d be retiring after the 2024 season, saw his 29th and final season as Coastal’s coach end Sunday at Clemson’s Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The Chanticleers had the game within a run entering the bottom of the eighth inning but ultimately fell to Clemson, 12-5.
Coastal Carolina, widely regarded as a bubble team entering the NCAA selection show last Monday, was the No. 3 seed in the Clemson Regional and upset No. 2 Vanderbilt in its opening game. The Chants lost to No. 1 Clemson, 6-5, on Saturday night before eliminating No. 4 High Point earlier Sunday for another shot at the Tigers and coach Erik Bakich.
Coastal Carolina narrowed its deficit to a single run before Clemson ripped off six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to secure its first super regional appearance in 14 years. The Tigers will host either Oklahoma State or Florida next weekend.
“Even though we got to 6-5, I felt like we were two touchdowns behind the whole game,” Gilmore said. “They finally found a way to blow it up and there at the end.”
A career in teal
Gilmore ends his Coastal Carolina career with over 1,000 wins and a sterling reputation as one of the architects of college baseball’s best mid-major dynasties. Competing at a school in Conway with far fewer resources than Clemson and USC, Gilmore turned Coastal Carolina into one of the sport’s best and most consistent teams and made its teal color scheme as recognizable as any.
Under Gilmore, the Chanticleers made 19 appearances in the NCAA’s regional round (hosting six), advanced to three super regionals (hosting one) and made an unforgettable run to a 2016 national championship in Omaha.
Coastal Carolina’s College World Series title eight years remains one of more stunning underdog stories in recent sports history and, as Gilmore remembered, had Clemson, South Carolina and Coastal fans cheering on the team “as one.”
“Probably one of the few times in our state, in anything, that that has ever happened,” Gilmore said with a laugh.
One thing Gilmore won’t miss, he said, is the current state of college baseball. Between the introduction of name, image and likeness compensation for athletes (which isn’t supposed to be used for recruiting inducements but often is) and the transfer portal, he said the sport he spent 39 years coaching at Coastal and USC Aiken is “a complete mess.”
“I’ll use this analogy ... if Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NFL had a system where everyone was a free agent every year, do you realize what chaos that would be?” Gilmore said. “It would go away. You wouldn’t have those three sports. And if you did, in baseball, it would be the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Dodgers. The rest of the teams couldn’t compete.”
Gilmore said the introduction of NIL, which he supports as a concept, has led to an “unlevel playing field,” especially for schools such as Coastal Carolina, which can’t put $2 million into its budget for baseball NIL compensation, as Gilmore said some schools nationally are doing.
“It’s just ridiculous,” Gilmore said. “As much as I’m gonna miss the kids — and I’m gonna miss the heck out of them — dealing with that mess right now. ... There has to be a better way.”
Heading into retirement, though, Gilmore said he “couldn’t say thank you enough” to all the fans who supported him, the players he coached and the assistants he worked with. He’ll miss the traditions and routines of college baseball — especially how Brooks Stadium, his home ballpark, blasted the beloved country song “Red Dirt Road,” one of his favorites, in honor of him every gameday.
Kevin Schnall, Coastal’s longtime associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, who’s worked as an assistant for Gilmore for 21 years, assumes the head coaching role with Gilmore’s retirement.
“Very few people in life get to have the job they want their entire career, at a place they wanted, in and around people they wanna be around,” Gilmore said.
And one thing’s for sure: He’ll always bleed teal.
“Our fans have been great,” he said. “We’ve all grown up together.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2024 at 11:18 PM.
