When it comes to recruiting, Mark Kingston and USC run a pro-style operation
If you’ve ever spent time considering who might start in left field for South Carolina baseball five years from now, you and coach Mark Kingston have something in common.
As fall practice is slated to begin soon, USC will have to replace the vast majority of its 2018 team that advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals, and Kingston isn’t prepared to say who he thinks will play where in 2019 — things can and will change so quickly that predictions this time of year are rough approximations at best.
But planning ahead, far ahead, is part of Kingston’s long-term approach at Carolina, and he told The State in an August interview that he has projected depth charts for as far as 2023, when the current class of incoming freshmen would either be fifth-year seniors or long gone. For the most part, that chart is all “recruits that haven’t even gotten here yet,” Kingston said.
In the more immediate future, the Gamecocks’ high school class of 2018 is ranked 21st in the country by Perfect Game, the first time in at least eight years USC hasn’t been ranked in the top 10. But Kingston has supplemented that class with eight junior college transfers, who will likely contribute right away for Carolina.
That’s not indicative of a larger approach Kingston plans on taking to recruiting, prioritizing JUCO players over high school commits. It was simply what the team needed for 2019, he said.
“We had eight, which was probably a few more than normal. I think the average would be closer to that five range. But you saw more this year because of how many players we lost off of last year’s team,” Kingston said.
“The elite high school player can come in and help you right away, or an older guy that’s been through two summer balls and two full years of college weightlifting, two years of at-bats, that matters. Talent matters, but experience and strength matters, very much so when you’re competing in the SEC.”
As for the team recruiting rankings, Kingston pointed out that they are often driven by the number of commits to each program, so he’s fine with the occasional down year if USC has plenty of returners.
From a big picture standpoint, Kingston described his approach to recruiting as similar to that of a Major League team’s scouting department, albeit scaled down.
Leading the charge, assistant coach Mike Current is on the road constantly seeing players as the head recruiting coordinator. Behind him, pitching coach Skylar Meade checks out every prospect on the mound. Finally, Kingston signs off on players. While the goal is to get as many eyes as possible on a potential recruit, Kingston said he trusts Meade and Current enough to occasionally approve a player without seeing him in person.
Because the NCAA only allots 11.7 scholarships for each program, Kingston and his staff must also take into account how much financial aid they can offer a player, depending on his talent, his position, his situation and their need.
“It’s a very detailed system to try to make sure when all is said and done, you have the best total team,” Kingston said. “Coach Current is almost like our scouting director. Myself, I’ll come in as general manager signing off on the elite players that we want to offer. Coach Meade is a cross-checker when it comes to the pitchers. We’re very big on collaborating on everything we do, and the scouting part is a big part of that.”
When constructing each recruiting class, Kingston said he values athleticism, power, speed and other general tools in players, but prioritizes need over them all.
“We have certain amount of speed we want in our lineup, we have a certain amount of power we want in our lineup, we have a certain amount of pure line drive hitters that we want in our lineup. You just have to go out knowing exactly what you want your team to look like and how many guys you need to look like that and then, what are we lacking,” Kingston said.
Attitude and personality are also factors, he said.
“We’re very picky with who we go after. We want all those things, but we also want it in a player that has great makeup, that will go to the wall for Gamecock baseball, so to me, because we have so many resources, because of the great traditions, in the recruiting process we’re going out there trying to find the best of the best,” Kingston said.
This story was originally published September 17, 2018 at 2:18 PM.