4 Moments That Defined the Greatest CWS Upset Ever - Gary Gilmore

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When Gary Gilmore arrived at Coastal Carolina, they had won just 17 games the previous season. Nobody—except perhaps Gilmore himself—believed this program could ever reach college baseball's pinnacle. Yet through a remarkable development-focused philosophy, unwavering faith, and a culture built on love, Gilmore guided the Chanticleers to one of the greatest underdog stories in sports history.

The 2016 College World Series champions weren't built on blue-chip recruits or lavish facilities. Coastal thrived by taking overlooked athletes, redshirting them to build their skills, and molding them into complete baseball players. "We had to take guys that simply nobody ever heard of," Gilmore reveals, explaining how he prioritized athleticism over polish in recruiting. This development approach, coupled with the program's "selfless and relentless" mantra, created a team greater than the sum of its parts.

What makes this championship story even more extraordinary are the specific predictions Gilmore shared with his team before the final series. In an emotional team meeting, he outlined exactly how they would win—which pitchers would throw how many innings and the precise situations they would face. His players watched in amazement as these predictions unfolded exactly as described. "Coach, you told us what was going to happen before it happened. How did you do that?" they would later ask him.

Behind this magical run was Gilmore's transformation as a leader. After nearly leaving coaching early in his career due to frustration, he discovered his true purpose through faith and relationships. "The most important thing God put me on this earth for was to develop relationships," he shares. This revelation led him to create a culture where love became the team's greatest strength—where players constantly picked each other up after failures and supported one another unconditionally.

Whether you're a coach seeking to build a championship program or simply love underdog stories, Gilmore's journey offers powerful lessons about development, culture, and the extraordinary things that happen when a team truly believes.

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, and fostering a winning mentality and attitude in baseball players through strong baseball leadership and mentality.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Today, on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, I examine
what it took for CoastalCarolina to win the 2016 College
World Series in Omaha withrecently retired head coach Gary
Gilmore.
It required fighting athletesthat baseball blue bloods
overlooked a strategy fordeveloping players and a culture

(00:25):
built on belief and love.
You'll want to hear theincredible story how Coach
Gilmore laid out exactly whatwas going to happen in the final
games of the College WorldSeries Tutor's Players A true
David versus Goliath story.
Next, on Baseball CoachesUnplugged.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken
Carpenter, presented byAthleteOne.
Baseball Coaches Unplugged is apodcast for baseball coaches
With 27 years of high schoolbaseball coaching under his belt
, here to bring you the insidescoop on all things baseball,
from game-winning strategies andpitching secrets to hitting
drills and defensive drills.
We're covering it all.

(01:04):
Whether you're a high schoolcoach, college coach or just a
baseball enthusiast, we'll diveinto the tactics and techniques
that make the difference on andoff the field.
Discover how to build a winningmentality.
Inspire your players and getthem truly bought into your game
philosophy Plus, get the latestinsights on recruiting,
coaching, leadership andcrafting a team culture that

(01:24):
champions productivity andsuccess.
Join Coach every week as hebreaks down the game and shares
incredible behind-the-scenesstories.
Your competitive edge startshere, so check out the show
weekly and hear from the bestcoaches in the game.
On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

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Hello and welcome to BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
I'm your host, coach KenCarpenter.
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button and look for a

(02:46):
new episode.
Every Wednesday, coastalCarolina head coach Gary Gilmore
takes us behind the scenes,from the clubhouse to the dugout
and even onto the field, and heshares what made 2016 such a
magical season for theChanticleers.
What made 2016 such a magicalseason for the Chanticleers?

(03:09):
I'm your host, coach KenCarpenter, and joining me today
is Gary Gilmore, retired headcoach and College World Series
champion at Coastal CarolinaCoach.
Thanks for taking time to be onBaseball Coaches.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Unplugged.
Ken, I appreciate it and lookforward to our conversation, and
I hope it's something that'sworthy for people to listen to
and get some knowledge from.
Hopefully it'll make their lifeand day better.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, without a doubt , there's no doubt that that's
going to happen.
Since I got you on the show,I've been really excited, you
know, once I found out I wasable to get you on the show, and
you know I always like tofigure out.
You know, what can I start offwith?
And I'm always curious aboutwhat do coaches do when they're
not coaching?

(03:57):
And you know, since retirement,what's your passion now?

Speaker 3 (04:04):
I mean, I'll be honest with you, I't like like
truly latched on to any onething or whatever.
Uh, you know, like beingoutdoors a lot and uh, you know,
one of the one of the thingsthat I mean, obviously my, some
of my health challenges are outthere.
But you know, mainly too, I, I,I miss so much of my own son

(04:24):
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 mean,I'm, I'm, I miss it a lot, but I
, I didn't want to go throughlife and not know my
grandchildren.

(04:44):
You know my wife's parents, myparents both loved our grandkids
but they, you know, they wereworking and doing stuff.
They never really got a chanceto really know their own
grandkids, not the way I knowmine already, know mine already,
you know I mean, so you know I,uh, you know I kind of I, you

(05:05):
know, kind of, got uh, highlypersuaded and uh,
semi-volunteered to coach my, my11?
U grandsons, uh, little travelteam.
So you know, I've, I've, I've,I call it the dark side, I've
gone over over.
So you know, I swore I'd neverdo that, but you know it's

(05:29):
amazing just to be out there andget to be around him.
And you know, practice with himsome and do things with him,
just to spend time with him andbe around the game of baseball.
It makes that part fun for me.
And you know we live a coupleblocks from the beach.
My wife's a big beach girl, soyou know we spend time down

(05:51):
there as well.
And you know just pretty muchanything outside that we can do.
We do she does a ton of walkingand when she can drag me out of
the house she drags me out ofthe house and I go weather,
because there are very few ofthose times during the coaching

(06:11):
career.
It's just hard to whittle outconsistent opportunities to do a
lot of things that normalfamilies do.
You make coaching seven days aweek because I make you know
coaching, coaching it's sevendays a week because I mean you
know you go oh man, I got Sundayoff.
We can do this and that youknow.

(06:31):
And it's their recruitingseason.
Sure, as tootin' one of theguys is going to run across
somebody and go.
You know, coach, I got him,he's going to come on campus on
Sunday or whatever, and soyou're the guy, you know, if
you're not out on the road aswell, you're the guy back at
campus.
So you know, instead ofspending Sunday with your family

(06:52):
, you spend it with someoneelse's family, and it's just.
You know, it's just how itworks.
Married to the right woman andhave the right kind of family
mentality to you know, be ableto cherish the little pieces we
can chip out of the, the, the,the career piece, if you're a

(07:14):
coach.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Well, you know, reflecting on your career at
Coastal, can you?
Is there one single thing thatwas like?
You thought this is the mostimportant factor for building
that championship program uh,you know, I mean I.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
I mean, when we started, uh, I had been very, I
had been very fortunate when I,when I went to usca and out of
pro ball, uh, coach warwickalready had a very, a very good
program.
It was on the precipice of ofbeing a championship caliber
program.

(07:53):
And you know the one thing, he,he hired me.
He told me, he said, uh, sothere's not a lot of money, you
know, pay paid for you to go tograduate school.
He said the one thing I wantedin return.
He said you know our program,we have gotten right to the very
top, but we can't figure outhow to beat Coastal Carolina.

(08:14):
And he said I need you to bringthat here.
And I told him, I said well, myanswer to that will be the same
thing as the answer you'reasking me about Coastal Carolina
.
I said you have to bethick-skinned enough for us to
develop a culture.

(08:34):
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.
We have to examine all thefactors in the culture that you
have, because the culture isgoing to win.
You know, and I said that youknow, to answer your question.
You know it took longer than Ithought to really create the

(09:01):
culture because we did not havethe athletes here.
Regardless of culture you, youcan have the greatest culture in
the world but you know, if youdon't have x amount of athletes
to execute that culture both onthe field and off the field, it

(09:24):
doesn't matter what your cultureis.
You know, if everyone'sthrowing 85 and all your
athletes in the field run 72 anda 60, we're just not going to
win many games because everyoneelse is just better than us.
You know we have to.
You know it's a deal where youknow recruiting and bringing in

(09:44):
athletic people and developmentI mean the core part of a
cultural coastal Carolina Duringthe time that I was there and I
can't imagine it ever changingwith Kevin being there it's all
about development, is it's?
You know?
I mean there are very fewplayers that ever came in there

(10:07):
that had a skill set that could,just in and of itself, just,
you know, play at a certainlevel.
To a guy named Roberto HernandezPlayed 18 years in the major
leagues, in the top 10 in savesin the history of college and

(10:27):
the history of major leaguebaseball.
Pitched in three all-star games.
He had never thrown a pitch inhis life off the pitcher's mouth
.
He'd been a catcher.
He threw, I think, three orfour innings in the Valley
League the summer before he cameto us.
And the good part about thatpart, hen, is that, unlike maybe

(10:54):
anyone else I ever coached inmy life, the fact that he had
never pitched, he had been acatcher.
He had the mentality ofunderstanding how to pitch.
Catcher, he had the mentalityof understanding how to pitch
but did not have the physicalmovements and mechanics and
pitch repertoire to execute onthe mound.
Physically pitching, you knowmost guys are the other way

(11:19):
around.
You see their physical pitchingattributes.
But understanding how to pitch,what to do, how to make an
adjustment if you're just a tickoff that day, how to like,
figure out how to, you know,right myself in the middle of
chaos and things like that, youknow.
So you know that is an exampleof the part at Coastal that I

(11:44):
feel like.
You know I mean we, we had to doI I mean the year I walked in
at coastal they had won 17 gamesthe year before, all right, and
you know, we just we justdidn't have the ability you know
we have.
We had to go out and find someguys.
You know, and you know the coregroup that kind of turned the
program around was, you know, toa large degree, along with

(12:07):
Coach Schnall who played on oneof those teams, you know, it
came down to redshirting several.
We redshirted about six orseven freshmen one year, the
very first year, and you know,or excuse me, the second year,
because the first year I didn'tget a chance to recruit, I just

(12:27):
had to play with what we had,and so it was really our first
recruiting class that webasically set most of them out
and took another beating becauseputting 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 thatthey needed.

(12:49):
But that group of guys boughtinto the culture, brought into
the workout, all the things thatbecame what coastal baseball
stood for.
That group bought into them andas freshmen, you know we, we
ended up, uh, losing in the inthe conference championship game

(13:09):
to a liberty team that hadseveral draft pick guys on it.
They were, they had a bunch of22, 23 year old, older guys on
that team, big, physical,talented, well coached, and you
know we took them.
We took them to the secondchampionship game I think it was
13 innings and we made an errorthat cost us the game and you

(13:32):
know it's, you know.
But from there moving forward,then you know we got a taste of
what it took to be good and thatgroup basically led us to.
You know, two years later we wona regional Uh, we took Georgia
to the second championship gameand lost and and 11 innings to

(13:54):
those guys.
They went to Omaha and, uh, youknow we should have won that
game and they had a guy namedKepinger hit three home runs in
one game against us.
And you know, just Kepinger hitthree home runs in one game
against us.
And you know just one of thosedeals where you know not sure
what I would do today but Ididn't walk him in the 10th
inning with a chance to we're upby.

(14:20):
We had flip-flop, we were thehome team that game and so they
were at the top of the 11th gamewe lost.
You get a two-run jack with twoouts and two strikes on them.
He had a two-run homer.
We had first base open.
And I sit there and think aboutit now.

(14:41):
Man, that goes againsteverything in baseball that you
would ever do is the one tightrun on the first base and you're
like, oh man, I'm like this guy.
There's no way this cat hitsthree home runs in one game, you
know.
And long ball, and he did, man.
But uh, you know, I, I'm a huge, huge, huge faith-based person

(15:05):
and I don't it wasn't God'sright time for me, you know I.
You know I would have never, Iwould have never can, I would
have never been able to stay atCoastal Carolina.
We'd have won that thing andyou know, that would have been
like holy cow, that's insane.
And if somehow we'd have goneto Florida State and beaten them

(15:28):
the way Georgia beat them andgone to the World Series, you
know, I mean financially, man, Iwas making less than $40,000,
you know, at the time, you knowI would have had no choice but
to leave.
You know, and I honestly, Ialways said it because I always
preached that, hey, coastal'sgoing to go to Omaha, this is

(15:50):
how we're going to do it,whatever, I'm pretty sure the
one thing that I do know, thatis 100% that during my tenure
there, early in those earlyyears, that I was the only human
being on the face of this earththat thought Coastal Carolina

(16:10):
could go to Omaha.
You know, and so you know,there were a lot of bumps in the
road.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Well, you know I guess you know that ties into
the recruiting side of thingsyou know you had to get the
right people in place.
And what would you tell?
You know high school coachesright now and their players
about what it takes to be a D1player.
I imagine it's got to be.
You got to have the rightmindset and you got to be

(16:41):
willing to grind.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yeah, yeah, mindset and you got to be willing to
grind yeah, yeah.
Well, I think that's.
I think that's the saving graceof um, um, not not that coastal
carolina will be called up inthe nil and the portal and this
and that, but I mean the culturethat I left, the culture that
coach sch Schnall is continuingto embrace.

(17:05):
That culture is an us cultureand as long as you have an us,
all of us culture and can sellit 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 niomoney, uh, way more people

(17:29):
moving in and out of theirprograms and they're just,
they're just floating talentthrough for nine months.
You're, you're, you know you're.
You still can do what needs tobe done to get to omaha.
And once you get to om, anyonecan run to Omaha because you get
days off.
You get to recycle guys.
You get.

(17:50):
You know you're not, for themost part you're not throwing.
You know your mid-weight guymight not get an inning out
there.
You know it's three startersand your bullpen guys.
You're running the majority ofthe time you're running.
You know six, know six, seven,maybe max eight guys out there
to get through the whole thingin omaha.

(18:11):
You know so.
You know it's it's not.
I'm not saying it's easier towin out there, it's just way.
I think winning the regional isfar more difficult because you
can play five games in threedays or four days, excuse me, in
four days, five games in fourdays.
So recycling the bullpen guysand doing different, I mean it's

(18:34):
a completely different strategythat has to take place to win
those types of things comparedto getting to Omaha.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yes, definitely, and I, uh, you know, I, I love what
you said there and it's a shamethat more of that's not uh, seen
, I guess, and it's the wayyou're saying, you know the, the
tweets and the stuff that's putout there and it's, it's all
about me, you know, it seems.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, it's, you know I, you know it seems.
Yeah, it's, you know, I mean I.
I think the whole, the wholething can it might you know
during.
You know college coach for 29years and, believe or not, I
think more has changed in thelast 12 months and maybe, you
know, in the last 15 or 20 years.
With the portal, the NIL, therule changes the numbers of

(19:32):
coaches that you can have, thenumber of recruiters.
I mean, you know I coached for29 years where you know the only
two people that could be out,you know were me and one other
assistant, or the two assistantsI mean you know you're out
there beating the bushes allover the country and it's two of
you.
You know now they got like halfa dozen, you know and and stuff

(19:54):
.
But you know, for playersthemselves, what used to be
developmental, you you know I, Ican look, I can look around at
the programs that were hugedevelopers of young pal.
You know our hours was.
I feel like ours was one of thevery best.

(20:15):
I mean we, we had to take guysthat simply nobody, no, very few
people, ever heard of.
To be very honest with you, youknow my formula position
player-wise was we weren'tathletes.
If I was going to make an erroron judgment of a player, it was
going to be an error injudgment of them being an

(20:40):
athlete versus a non-athlete.
You know, I felt like we couldtake athletes and develop them
into players.
If a guy was a quick twitch guy, a guy that could run and could
move, had movement skills andthings like that, then we could
develop that guy into a player.
Obviously that wasn't anecessity Nine guys through the

(21:09):
order.
But I mean we had teams attimes at Coastal where all nine
guys could run.
We led the country in stolenbases several times and all of
that.
But you know, that was a productof young players that were

(21:30):
athletes that you made biggerand stronger, but virtually
almost.
I don't know the percentage.
I'd guess 75% to 90% of thosekids redshirted for a year.
They were a lot of them wereNorthern kids.
They didn't have limited I meantravel ball wasn't what it is

(21:50):
today.
I mean they had limitedexposure.
They also had limited gameexperience and they had.
They had to first of all learnhow to play the game but
physically had to get to a pointwhere their, their natural
skillset could perform at a highlevel, consistently.
And you know, obviously theywould show you something in camp

(22:13):
and workouts and showcases thatyou go to and things like that.
They would show you something.
But at the end of the day, youknow, it sorely needed to be
developed.
There were very few, it wasalmost in our program.
I mean.
It got to a point where, youknow, I mean you know, bringing
a high school recruit in, thatwas a real player.

(22:35):
You know they get around ourplayers and they they would tell
them like, hey, man, it's, it'stough to impossible to play
here as a freshman.
You know the guy, the thingsthat you have to learn to
actually be a player here isgoing to take you a while,
unless you're just insanelyskilled.
And eventually, you know, weget a guy.

(22:57):
We got a my kid in 2005 namedMicah Stanza, first-round draft
pick guy.
Eventually, you know, he playedas a freshman, pitched as a
freshman, you know.
And from there you know he kindof set the bar of uh okay,
what's it take to to be afreshman to walk in here and
play?
And then we have this guy andthat guy.

(23:18):
You know, in the big south wewent like I think three or four
years in a row where ourfreshman was the player of the
year in the league, but theywere all red shirt freshmen.
So they're really likesophomores, even though they'd
not use the year eligibility,but they were just bigger and
stronger and more skilled thaneverybody else's normal true

(23:39):
freshmen, you know.
So you know it was funny.
They actually in the leaguemeeting one year.
They go.
Well, we're tired of Coastal'sredshirt freshman winning the
league.
We're going to change the role.
You have to be a true freshman.
And I started laughing.
I said, okay, that's fair, Iget it, but no, it was.

(24:00):
I mean, that was a huge part ofit.
You know, and I mean a lot ofthat.
With the pitching too, you knowyou, to try to play the teams we
were trying to play.
We wanted to play Clemson's inSouth Carolina's, north
Carolina's, virginia.

(24:20):
As time went on, when, when Oatgot there, teams like that were
the teams we want to play.
But also we, you know, man, wewe loaded up our schedule with
kent state, who was unbelievablygood back in those days.
Delaware, man, they were onrock solid back in the day.
They were really, really good.

(24:41):
George mason, you know, I go on.
You know our schedule was verydifficult and you know, I felt
like we needed to develop, toplay the schedule, not to play
the schedule.
To develop.
We had to be better.
So we had to do some things toget better.
We wanted to be able to playthat type of schedule because,

(25:02):
you know, the Big South at thattime in the league was very
top-heavy.
Winthrop was outstanding whenCoach Hudak was there all those
years and you know we just had,you know, when Coach Hare was at
Campbell there at the end oftheir time in the Big South, man
, they were a handful as well.
Irvingham Southern Coach Shoup,I mean it, it was, you know, at

(25:26):
the top end of the league.
You, you, you had to be a top25, top 30 team to compete at
the top end of that league.
You know the bottom of theleague was not nearly as good,
you know, but so, but all ofthat and every, everything we
did in the cultural piece wassurrounded by development.

(25:47):
First we had to recruit, butalso we put a thing together.
We had two Montferwards that wedeveloped along the way of
selfless and relentless.
What that looked like on thefield, what it looked like in
the classroom, what that lookedlike on the field, what it
looked like in the classroom,what it looked like at walmart,

(26:09):
uh, what it looked like in allwalks of life.
How can you show your twomantra words and characteristics
of the culture of coastal inevery setting?
And we spent a lot of timeteaching kids how to do that.
And, uh, you know, it was a day, it was different.
You know, I got a, you know,and it was a product of the

(26:32):
staff and the players andeveryone else.
It wasn't just me, but I got aton of personal compliments from
faculty and staff and peoplejust you know, the yes, ma' sir,
this, that, whatever they go,wow, man, your kids are the most
courteous kids I've ever met,that their manners are so
amazing.
I said well, you know thatstarts at home first, you know.

(26:54):
But you know, we, we want to bean extension of what, what we
feel like true culture andbelonging to, to a group means
we want to be different, we wantto be able to be in a crowd and
no one pay attention to us, butalso we want to be in a crowd
where everybody goes.
Well, I want to be like that, Iwant to act like that, I want

(27:18):
to be like that, and I think toomuch of that in our world has
gone away.
To be very honest with you,we're not like that anymore.
We hide behind a phone screenor a computer screen or whatever
, with some fake name.
We don't have the innerfortitude to stand up and go hey

(27:38):
, man, it's me, I'm accountable,that was my mistake or that was
this or that.
Whatever I'm accountable, goodor bad, it's it, that's all me.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Well, you, you talked about it right there for me,
and and it kind of leads into mynext question you, you kept
building and building andbuilding.
You know regionals, and thenyou finally win the World Series
.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
What was that like and what made it so special?
What makes it so special ispeople said we couldn't do it.
You know what I mean.
What makes it so special ispeople said we couldn't do it.
You know what I mean.
I mean there's still.
I have it in my scrapbook, Ihave a picture of it.

(28:35):
You know we're playing thenumber.
We're opening up against thenumber one team in the country
University of Florida.
They have four first round.
We only saw three, but weplayed them on that sunday night
and we saw three of their firstround pitchers all in one night
.
Alonzo was the first baseman onthat team.

(28:55):
There are a couple other bigleague position players I can't
think of.
They go off top my head, butthey had a.
They had a fourth first rounderwho didn't pitch that day
against us.
You know ESPN gave us of thechance to win the World Series
3.7% chance of winning, allright.
So we're sitting there and youknow I mean for me.

(29:20):
I'll be honest with you.
I don't think I ever gotnervous one second until the
last pitch of the last game andwe're sitting there like damn
man.
We're one pitch away fromwinning the World Series and
there's dudes on second andthird and there's a full count
and there's two outs and I'mlike holy moly, man, this is

(29:40):
what's going on.
Up until then I don't think Igot nervous at all because it
was like we're here, no oneexpects us to be here, and every
single day, ken, that we stayedthere, every single day, you
could feel it, the players couldfeel it.

(30:03):
Like Coach man, everybody'sstarting to pull for us,
everybody in the country.
When we got, every day we wouldgo to batting practice or
whatever.
We had.
Our team bus was all wrapped inteal and black and coastal

(30:24):
stuff all over.
Whatever all those team busesare.
We'd pull down the street.
You know game one, and we mayhave, as we left the hotel and
weaved our way through to wherewe were going to take batting
practice, we may have had ahandful of real coastal fans
that were our normal coastalfans stepped out of a bar or

(30:48):
whatever, saw the bus and youknow we're getting maybe 25
claps going down there.
You know, about four games intowhen we get into the deal where
we're in the last four.
We have to beat TCU.
We have to beat them twice tomove on to the championship

(31:13):
series.
I'll never forget.
It was a night game and we'repulling out for BP and it was
like every stoplight we stoppedat it was just 50, 75, 100
people.
They come walking out of thesebuildings, see our bus coming,

(31:36):
they start walking out.
They're out on the corner ofman shots up.
They're clapping like crazy.
By the time we got to the lastgame, I'm telling you, it was
like a roadblock of people Everystoplight.
It was unbelievable.
I mean.
They even made comments on TVthat at the end of the day, if

(32:03):
you weren't an Arizona fan,you're definitely a coastal fan.
That there's a whole countryagainst their arizona because
they were all coastal people andit honestly, our players in our
meetings would go coach.
I feel like these people arepicking us up.

(32:24):
I feel like I'm walking on air.
There's so many people pullingfor us that I don't even know
this and that I mean in our ownstate.
I mean it's like you know, Idon't mean this derogatorily or
any way or whatever.
I don't want somebody jumpingon me over a race or whatever.

(32:46):
But you know, I mean in someways.
You know, in the South youstill have remnants of the Civil
War, so to speak.
You know, and in South Carolina.
That's kind of how I alwaysdescribe the South Carolina
Clemson deal when they play oneanother.
I mean you're on one side ofthe sand with the other.

(33:06):
You know, and for that oneseries when we're playing
Arizona, and especially the lastday we're in the championship,
do or die, take it all.
Everybody took off the garnetand black.
They took off the orange andthe purple.
Everybody in our state was tealand black.
For one day there may that maynever happen in history again.

(33:31):
It was that big a deal, youknow.
Our governor broke hundreds ofyears of of of protocol at the
state level and flew our coastalflag above the state flag.
Had it never, ever happenedbefore?
Oh, yeah, oh, she called Helenout.
She called Helen out.
You know what I mean.

(33:51):
She ain't even got a coastalconnection, you know.
But it was that big a deal forall of us.
I mean it was an incrediblesurreal moment for you know.
I mean you was an incrediblesurreal moment for, you know.
I mean you think about it therehadn't been a mid-major win,
win the thing, in like 70 years,you know, back to when you know

(34:14):
they just weren't in the sameeven remotely the same landscape
of the visual and baseball.
It is now.
You know.
I mean you know that's back inthe days when you know Army or
navy or somebody like that couldwin the thing, because you know
they could enlist the rightgroup of guys and be the best
team in the country or something.
But you know, it's it.

(34:35):
It was, um, I don't knowhonestly how to describe it um,
it, it.
It was so special to me.
My father passed away threeyears before we got there and he
was so instrumental in my lifeand my faith had just taken this

(35:02):
exponential step forward and itplayed itself out during all
this series like just takingthis exponential step forward
and it played itself out duringall this series and I honestly
think that you know that.
I honestly think it had a partof it.
To be honest with you, I reallydo.
I mean the things that happen,ken.

(35:23):
I mean you know the things thathappen, ken.
We could talk for we could havethis conversation for the next
several hours, but I'll tell youtwo things that happened and
I'll try to make them as quickas possible, that's all right.
We're at LSU and we hadn'tspanked them.

(35:45):
The first game and then gametwo.
We're up two to one, going intothe 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,
uh busted his knee up.
I tried to squeeze in a run inthe in the bottom half of the

(36:10):
eighth to give us a two run late, and and when he dove in the
home plate, somehow he and thecatcher got tangled and he did.
I forget what they called it,uh, maybe all meniscus or
something.
He did something to his knee.
He's out for the rest of theyear.
So I put a freshman in who hadplayed some early in the year

(36:34):
because Seth had been hurt, andso I had played this young man.
But once Seth got well, theother young man he got scrapped
at bat here and there for40-some games.
He hadn't been in a game really.
So I put him at second base andwe go out there and you can
only imagine what's happening.

(36:56):
We're three outs away fromOmaha, the pinnacle of what
we're trying to achieve.
First pitch three, hop.
I'm telling you it was a fungo.
I could not fungo a ball inrhythm more easy to catch than

(37:16):
that ball.
What smack dab to him?
It might as well hit a teflonskillet.
You know it, it was.
It hit his glove.
It bounced down here, sat rightat his feet.
He went to grab it.
He bobbled it, dropped it,picked it up, threw it wide at

(37:37):
first base.
Guy gets off.
Well, you can imagine losing man.
They had 18,000 people in thatjoint.
All right, I'm telling you, ourdugout, the concrete dugout,
was vibrating.
It was like that much stuff,you know, and so you know we, we
had, we had done an amazing jobof keeping our focus and cool

(38:01):
and in keeping all that stuffaway from us.
You know we.
You know we watched For Love ofthe Game a couple of times away
from us.
You know we.
You know we, we watched forlove of the game a couple of
times and you know at least the,the excerpts of kevin costner
and, like you know, uh, controlthe mechanism, you know, and
make all that other stuff outthere, all those people
screaming at you and holleringat it, make it go away.

(38:21):
We're just playing the game.
Lo and behold my pitcher.
Four pitches later there's awall.
So it's first and second.
Now, I mean you know they haveone.
They have the fastest guy incollege baseball coming up.
What's he do?
He lays down a 25 foot bump.
It's about three inches fromthe foul line.
I mean, you know, I had a guythat played in the big leagues

(38:44):
at third base and Remillard madea hell of a play and I mean we
knew he was bonding, we stillcouldn't get him.
And so the kid that made theoriginal error, he made a play
at first base and I'll be honestwith you, this ball comes up
into him and forces him into therunning lane.

(39:05):
This guy just absolutelybulldozes him, I'm telling you.
I mean he comes up up, he's gotblood everywhere, whatever, but
he kept the ball in front.
Ball gets by.
They scored multiple runs.
They scored one run and endedup with guys at second and third
.
Well, the next thing we do whathappens?
Ground ball to the pitcher.

(39:26):
They don't run.
My pitcher don't check thirdbase.
He catches it actually throw agrenade to first base.
I mean that third could havewalked on.
He gonna walk.
Well, then we, then we go then,then then we get a walk.
So bases are loaded, now oneout and my pitcher goes three

(39:48):
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,I thought a little slider here.
I said huh.
I said we just we've walked twoguys already and it's three and

(40:08):
one where we're getting readyto walk in the tying run.
He said this guy, if we throw afastball here, this guy's going
to crush it.
I said all right, man.
I said I told him.
I said God brought us this far.
I said he throws a slider and aguy swung out of his rear end

(40:29):
and he missed it.
And then he climbs the ladderwith a 92-mile-an-hour fastball
four-seamer and the guy who'slooking for the slider again
threw it right by him.
I mean completely full, punchedhim out.
Next pitch, fly ball to leftfield and then the fun begins
Tie game.

(40:53):
We come in bottom of the night.
I got the leadoff guy up andthen my third round draft pick
shortstop piet.
So they come in, I grab.
I told my pitching coach.
I said get those two guys overhere to me right now.
Just grab them, I'll meet themin the on deck circle.
So I got my anthony marks.
Who's our fiery littleleft-handed hitting left fielder

(41:14):
he's.
He's putting on all his junk.
I turned my hat around.
I got this close to his face, I.
I said you see this, ray, youlook in these two things right
here.
I said you do not do anything,but focus on my eyes and hear my

(41:35):
word.
I said Anthony.
I said I know 1000% how this isgoing to play out.
I said you're going to get thefirst base.
The only thing I don't know ishow you're going to do it.
I don't know if you're going toget a hit, a wall hit by pitch
error.
I have no idea.
I said, but look in my eyes.

(41:57):
I said can you see yourself inthe first base?
And he's like yes, coach, yeah,coach, I'll do it, I'll do it.
I said you go up there and havethe best at-bat you've ever had.
And I said when you get tofirst?
I said we're going to dosomething we haven't done all
year.
Okay, I said in this situationwe've almost always bunted.

(42:20):
We're leading the country insacrifice bunts and home runs
with that team.
We have the best home runinning team.
But we also sacrificed, buntingmore than anybody else.
I said we're going to dosomething different.
I want you to get the best leadyou've ever gotten.
You've been in this programfive years, son, and we've

(42:45):
talked about face stealing, facestealing, face stealing.
You've never been my best facestealer, but you will be be
today because you're going toget the best lead you can.
You're going to give me thebest steal break you've ever
given me and you're going to getto second and be safe.
And he's like, yeah, I'm readyto go.
So he starts heading up to theplate.
Paez Paez is a shortstop, he'shitting, hitting second, and

(43:11):
he's not a very good runner.
It didn't play into my thoughtprocess because I had been
praying.
Man, I've been praying thewhole game.
I mean, I sat there the wholegame playing god, whatever your
will is, whatever, just don'tlet me screw this up.
God, don't let me mess it.
I don't want to say somethingor do something that's not
coming from you.
So you put the words in mymouth, you put them in there,

(43:35):
and so, as soon as Mark walkedaway from me, fias looked at me
and goes Coach, I got it, hegoes.
I know he goes.
I know I haven't been a greatbutler, but I will get you a
great butler, mikey.
That's not what I need today.
I said that's not what we'redoing today.
I said when Anthony gets tosecond, I'm not going to butt

(43:57):
him to third.
I said I know we probablyshould, but I tell you what you
know, what You're our bestplayer 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 ahigher power than me.
I said you see it, you find thepitch you like.

(44:18):
You put your swing on it.
I guarantee it.
They send us to Omaha.
I went to the third basecoach's box and called for
nobody else.
Anthony Marks called off fivejust absolute bastard sliders

(44:40):
from their reliever after he gothim 0-2.
He kept fighting pitches off.
He ends up having a nine pitchat bat and walks.
He goes to first base, takes agood aggressive lead.
He has a 3.19 steal break time.

(45:00):
All right.
To put that in perspective,that's in the top 1% of Major
League Baseball steal break time.
All right, I mean that's theelite of the elite.
That's insane.
All right.
So he gets the second.
And anybody that ever watchedus play that series, I mean that
game, especially thisdetermination in his face when

(45:22):
he gets the second.
He looks at his teammates andhe's just pounding his chest
looking at those guys.
The very next pitch they hadmoved the third baseman in up on
the grass.
Mike Piazza's in a 0-1 count atthe plate and a guy throws him

(45:44):
a slider Pitch.
He pitched it all off so he dondon't hear very good, so I
don't know why the heck.
He even swung it, the damnthing.
But he did it and it was one ofthese top spun bouncers.
To third one hop, two hops.
On the second hop it had somuch top spin it went a little,

(46:10):
little big.
It went over the kid at third.
It missed his glove that muchand he goes down and over the
left field line and marks he hadto hang hold up for a second,
thinking he might catch the ball.
He couldn couldn't just breakand go.
So you know he comes around inthird and I mean they're getting

(46:31):
left out of really good arm.
I mean he air-mailed it all theway to the plate and I'm
telling you if it would havebeen low I'm not sure we're
probably out.
But it was like head high andhe had to apply the tag and we
beat it and got in underneath it, and you know we go to Omaha,
but I'm telling you the amountof praying I did in during that

(46:59):
game.
I was way more worried aboutdoing something that took away
from my kids having a chance towin than anything else.
That was the one thing I didn'tlike.
Oh yeah, if I do all the rightmoves and we lose, I'm good with

(47:22):
it, I can handle it, not askingyou to make the decision.
Just continue, god.
Just continue to be in my head,continue to give me great
confidence in my abilities.
That you've given me and thethings that you've done, that
you're at the end of the day,the things I sing and do with
these guys, that it is the will,that it's what you want them to

(47:45):
do, and if they don't performand win, then we just don't
perform and win.
But we do the things that weshould do.
Well, we get to Omaha and weget.
I mean, this goes on to alesser degree in basically every
game.
I mean I'm constantly.

(48:05):
Anybody that would do adocumentary on us and go back
through all the footage of ourgames, they would see me on the
top step on the rail and myhands would be like this and if
you watched me at third base,outside of giving signs, the
majority of time I would bethere instead of here or here or

(48:27):
whatever.
You'd see this and the wholeconstant time I'm going.
God, your will be done.
We lost some of those games, soit wasn't like, okay, well, if
I do this, we win.
It wasn't how it worked.
Well, we lost Arizona game oneand our pitching because we had
gotten in the loser's bracket.

(48:48):
We had played Thursday, thelosers bracket.
We had played thursday, friday,saturday at sunday off.
Now we had to play monday,tuesday, wednesday.
We had to play six games inseven days.
That's that's hell.
That's hell for anybody.
Yeah, uh.
So I never forget.
Coming out of the pressconference, we, uh, you know,
walk through the locker room orthrough the locker room in, uh,

(49:12):
you know, the players lockerroom was on the left, the
coaches one was on the right.
Well, everyone was in the mainlocker room.
So I had all my stuff.
So I went into my office.
I told him as a law boss guysgive me five, I'll be back here
in five minutes.
I went in that locker room thatwas the head coach's locker

(49:36):
room.
I locked the door behind me,threw my bag up in the locker
and got down on my knees and putmy elbows on my locker lid and
I just pray, I just go God, whatdo I say?
Walking by that, there wasdevastation in that room.

(49:57):
It was completely devastating.
I said God, you've got to helpme, have a plan.
We're down in pitching, wedon't have many moves I can make
.
I know some moves that I canmake.
I don't think physically aregoing to give us a chance to win
.
So I need to hear your voice, Ineed you to help me with the

(50:22):
plane.
Well, I walked back in there andnothing.
I walked back in there andnothing.
Initially there was nothing.
So I just started talking andthen, all of a sudden, this
first idea pops into my brainand I said guys, let's stop for

(50:45):
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'vetold you a million times the
power of our 27.
All believing together, allworking together, all loving

(51:09):
each other together, allbelieving together, all working
together, all loving each othertogether, is more powerful than
a team that's more talented thatdoesn't have that.
I said we proved it.
These last 21 games were 19-2.
I said and a lot of these teamshave more talent than us, in

(51:31):
certain spots, for sure.
So I said this is what I wantyou to do.
So five minutes I want youright now.
I said we were kind of in asquare.
I said reach to the guy on theleft of you and right of you,
grab his hand.
I said we've the guy on theleft of you and right of you,
grab his hand.
I said we've been doing thisall week.

(51:52):
I said let's spend five minutes.
Look at each one of yourbrothers left of you, right of
you, across the way from you.
You lock eyes with them for aminute and you see the love and
caring that's in each one of us,that they're your brother
regardless of what happensmoving forward.

(52:13):
They are your brother for therest of your life and if we're
going to go down, somebody'sgoing to have to take down the
power that exists in this world.
And so they did that for likefive minutes and, to be very
honest with you, I'm sittingthere going like okay, god, well
, we still have a plan.

(52:33):
Guys, there's still a way.
Well, at the end of fiveminutes is really I mean I mean
even even my assistant guys thatwere there, I mean coach
shillway tells us really I getgoosebumps every time.
I ever think of this he goesyou told us that day in that

(52:53):
locker room how we were going towin the World Series and he
said damn near to the pitchBecause I told him.
I said, guys, I've got a plan.
And I said this plan was notjust me.
I said I'll be honest with you,I've got a plan.
And I said this plan was notjust me.
I said I'll be honest with you,I cheated.
I'm asking for a whole lot ofhelp from above.

(53:16):
And I said this is the planthat I feel like is the plan
that I'd be in urge to use.
So hear me out.
And I said Mike Morrison, ourfirst team All-American I think

(53:38):
he was a seventh or eighth rounddraft pick guy.
Whatever, mike Morrison hasbeen a reliever all year.
He's relieved one inning.
He's relieved five innings.
I said you know what, mike, ifwe're going to lose tomorrow, I
want to lose with you on thepitcher's mound Because I feel

(53:59):
like you're our best guy Outsideof Beckwith.
You're our best guy.
I took a ball over and I handedit to him.
I said, mike, I challenge youas a best guy.
I took a ball over and I handedit to him.
I said, mike, I challenge youas a man.
I said this is what all of therest of us in this room need.
We need you to go six completeinnings and don't hand us that

(54:22):
damn ball back until you reachpitch 100.
And I said, when you do give usthe ball back, there's going to
be guys on base.
And I said, when you do give usthe ball back, there's going to
be guys on base.
And I said Bobby Holmes, you'reour best guy bullpen-wise in
the whole country.
You've only let one inheritedrunner score all year.

(54:43):
They're handing you the ballsome.
You're finishing the game.
I said I love the rest of youpitchers, I love you all, but I
can tell you right now you'renot pitching.
Tomorrow.
These two guys are going to winthe game tomorrow.

(55:03):
Andrew Beckwith, you're going tothrow the championship game.
You have thrown two completegames in the College World
Series.
You are the best player in thewhole country.
Right man Dude's 15 and 1.
One point, something ERA,that's it.
But you know what I'm askingyou to throw on two days short

(55:27):
rest.
You pitched last time and threw140 pitches on one day short
rest.
He was a subby guy.
So you know that's a wholedifferent story.
You know I've only got 140pitches in my life.
But we about got in a fight inthe dugout on national TV
because I wanted to take him outand he kept telling me that

(55:51):
that Friday game against TCU hegoes.
We'd probably gotten a fight inthe dugout on national TV
because I wanted to take him out.
And he kept telling me thatFriday game against TCU he goes.
I'm like a girl softballpitcher.
I throw down here.
I can throw every day down here.
And he told me seventh inning,eighth inning and ninth inning.
He told me in that game, ken, hesaid, coach, you call a
fastball First pitch.
If it's not above 90 miles anhour from up top, then you come

(56:16):
get me, take me out.
I'm done.
Hell, he only threw 90-91 tobegin with and he's all these
pitches into the game.
You're like shit, you can't doit.
Yeah, he did Three innings in arow.
Yeah, 91, 91, 90 and 90, threeinnings in a row, first pitch
inning to get to this point.
Well, so I told that.

(56:36):
I said we called it that.
I said that when you pitch withall this, all these innings, I
said you're not going to getanother complete game.
I said, much as I love you,you're not going to get another
complete game.
I said, much as I love you,you're not going to get a CG
again.
I said I need you to get usinto the sixth inning.

(56:56):
And I said, when you do, thereare going to be guys all over
the bases and there's going tobe chaos.
And I said, bobby Holmes, youwill have just thrown between
two and three innings the daybefore to finish up behind Mikey

(57:17):
.
I said, son, I need you.
Whatever it is, it's one out,two outs, three out, whatever it
is that that can't get done.
I need you somehow to be thatguy.
Alex Cunningham, our number twostarter.
He was a top 10 round draftpick guy.
I said AC.

(57:39):
I said you know what?
I said you've had a wholecareer here and never thrown out
of the bullpen one time.
And I said you also have thedistinction of being a guy that
pitched as a starter in highschool in three straight state

(58:00):
championship high school gamesand you lost all three of them.
This is your opportunity tothrow the last pitch in the
college world series and win thenational championship, and
you're going to do it.
Game one Mike Morrison threw 106pitches.

(58:21):
He's ahead one run.
He's got guys on second andthird.
Oh no.
First and second and two outs.
He's got guys on second andthird.
Oh no, first and second and twoouts.
Bobby Holmes comes in, gets himout of that and he pitches two
more innings.
So he went two and a third.
The next day Beckwith got usinto the sixth inning.

(58:44):
Bases are loaded with two outsand Holmes comes in.
Guy hits a line drive rocket atour first baseman.
He snatches it out of the air.
Get out of that and Cunningham,who never, ever, finished one

(59:07):
of these games in his life, goesthree innings, strikes the last
guy out.
A 4-3 game with men on secondand third and a full count.
He punches the guy out and wewin.
He told them too that it's likeI mean you know you can't make

(59:27):
that stuff up.
You know what I mean.
It's you know I mean both Piazand Marks.
Every time we're ever togetherwe'll look at each other and you
know both of those kids arefairly emotional and they will

(59:50):
both.
Every single time we talk aboutit, they'll both start crying.
Coach, you told us what we weregoing to do.
You told us what was going tohappen before.
How did you do that?
I said, well, I don't think itwas me, so I'm just being with
you.
I said.
I said I was so much into thefaith piece that I had such
confidence in whatever wascoming into my brain that that

(01:00:12):
it was coming from the guy thatI wanted to give all the glory
to.
I said, because it goes bad,that that's all I ever kept
telling them.
You know, listen, I will nottake one grain of sand of credit
for doing this.
This is all you.
So just whatever comes of this,myself and our players, you as

(01:00:38):
our Lord will be the one hoistedup on the platform, not us.
I said that is what this is allabout.
I mean the kids bought into it.
That is what this is all about.
I mean the kids bought into itand I mean it was so many things
came into that whole group, ken.
I mean we started I think wemaybe had four or five guys that
were believers.

(01:00:58):
By the time we got done, weprobably had three-fourths of
the team were guys that werebelievers and I mean it was just
another way for them to bond.
You know to be very honest withyou.
It was.
It was an unbelievableexperience and and to experience
it the way that we did, youknow I mean you know honestly is

(01:01:18):
you know it was a sportsversion of a David and Goliath
type deal you know to be veryawesome.
I mean Arizona, what's their,what's their program?
Very awesome.
We had, no, you know, I meanarizona, what, what's their,
what's their program one likesix or seven national
championships in baseball.
And you know, you know, just,you know, florida's got, you
know, all those first rounddraft picks.
Tcu's got all these guys, texas, texas.

(01:01:39):
I mean, you know, worse thanthem, you know, and and yet we
just kept playing the way we'vebeen playing.
We just made it very hard foryou to beat us because we, you
know, we were first in thecountry in home runs, first in
sacrifices, we were, I think,third or fourth in defensive

(01:01:59):
fielding and our era was one ofthe best ones in the country.
Stolen bases, we, you know, Ithink we were like seventh or
eighth in the country and solidbasis.
So you know, when you played us, you know you, you, we, we were
a handful man, you know, I meanyou know it's.
You know, okay, we play a twoto one game.
You, you, you better be able todo all the other facets of the

(01:02:24):
game.
You know you worry aboutkeeping the ball in the park.
I mean we, we got six guys withyou know you know 17 plus
stolen bases.
We got this.
We can beat you with that.
You know we're very proficientthat at not only getting bunts
down but placing them wherethey're very difficult to defend

(01:02:45):
.
You know it's one thing to geta bunt down, it's another to put
it two, three feet away fromthe foul line and go okay, hey
man, let me see if that pitchercan get off that pitcher's mound
because he ain't fielded onebutton travel ball this whole
entire career.
Let's see if he can make thatplay Stuff like that.

(01:03:07):
But it was, you know.
I know it's been probably a20-minute long-winded answer to
your question, but it has beenthat, you know, for that group
of kids.
You know the team this pastyear unbelievably talented, had

(01:03:28):
fantastic pitching and playedgreat defense and had enough
offense to win a nationalchampionship.
It was different.
There never can be anotherfirst and there can never be
another team that did it the waywe did.

(01:03:50):
You know it really was.
I mean, you know I so enjoyedwatching them play this year.
So many of the facets andculture of what had been Coastal
Carolina for so long whateveryou know was right back at the
forefront.
They did so many things.
It's just the things on theside that happened with me and

(01:04:14):
my expressing these things withour players.
I mean, I don't know how youever surely not something you
can practice you know it.
Just you know it never happenedin my lifetime ever before and
never happened afterwards inthat type manner ever again
either.
It was just like we were justlocked in this spiritual work

(01:04:39):
that I feel like led us to wherewe got to.
I really did, really did.
I truly feel like I will.
I'll go to my gravewholeheartedly believing that
that was some form of divineconnection going on there, that
that maybe all it was justhelped me be the best coach I

(01:05:02):
could be.
I I don't know, I have no ideawhat it was, but I'm telling you
what you know.
You look around and, as a coachand just like what you're doing
in your podcast about touchinglives and making a difference in
life, that group of people sawa side of me.

(01:05:23):
They saw a side of theirteammates.
They saw a side of a group ofpeople believing in something
and believing in each other andloving each other.
So many of the biblical thingsthat the bible is about is we're
a part of our team.
And they saw that andexperienced it and for all of

(01:05:43):
them that they, they all, youknow we ever get together, they,
man because you have no ideahow that impacted my life.
You know just.
You know, obviously, thewinning and all that was.
It is and still is what it was.
When I sit back and think aboutwhat we all did together and

(01:06:04):
the things you shared with usand the staff and everybody else
buying into what we're doing,we're so incredible.
You know that the impact thatyou made on us and our ability
now to try to use that impactand exponentially spread it and
move it is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
It's amazing, the power of belief.
I mean you're telling thatstory and I can recall watching
the game on TV and I'm sittinghere on the edge of my seat,
just you're going throughtelling it and sometimes I've
never been to any broadcastschool or anything like that.

(01:06:48):
But sometimes the best thing Ican do when I'm doing these
podcasts is just shut up andlisten and, and you know, I was
like don't say a word becausethis, this is just too good.
And you know, I I was hoping,if it's possible, I have two
more questions for you, yeah,yeah, oh, I'm good, I'm good.

(01:07:10):
Well, actually I want to makeit three, and the first one is a
quick one, but I ask it ofevery guest Hate losing or love
winning.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
I'm a terrible loser.
No, yeah, I don't know, I lovewinning, but the losing part,
the losing part.
My wife, early in my children'slives, made me quit playing

(01:07:41):
board games and different thingswith my kids to play to win.
And she goes.
You know, they're only likefour.
Yeah, hell, they got to learnhow to play, let's go.
You know I'm not kind of noslight, but no, I just.
You know, I learned a lot.

(01:08:03):
I learned more lessons losingthan I did winning.
To be honest, I really and Ican't say that I'm proud at how
I reacted to losing at times.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
I did a little research and you know as great a
coach as you are.
It almost didn't happen, right,because I really wish you could
just tell the story about whereyou were like I'm done with
baseball and you were going towhere I was a PE teacher.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
Oh yeah, you know it was where I was so locked in
during that 2016 season, evenbefore we got on that run to go
to Omaha.
You know about my faith and allthat and all that.

(01:09:07):
I probably was as faith-drivenas I was then back in.
I think it was the second orthird year I was here at Coastal
, but yet I wanted it was moreabout me than it was about us,

(01:09:34):
if that makes sense to you.
I had a lot of help with thefunds that it took to try to

(01:10:01):
build a program.
You know, it's kind of right atthe start of the people were
starting to put a little bit ofmoney into baseball and things
like that.
I mean, we had scholarship, Ouroperating budget was terrible,
our stadium was horrible.
I mean, we had some strikesagainst us and that old adage of

(01:10:23):
God's going to do thingsaccording to his schedule, not
according to yours.
Oh yeah, I wasn't willing to bepatient.
I wasn't a very faithfulsteward at that point in time.
I went to church, read the thebible, prayed a lot, but also

(01:10:52):
was selfish about okay, well,I'm doing all these things and
when's my turn?
You know when?
When are when are we going todo this.
When are we going to do that?
And I, you know, I, just I.
I got so beat down because,honestly, exactly the question
you just asked better winner orbetter loser?

(01:11:13):
I was definitely not a betterloser and it beat me down.
I saw things in the eyes of anegative person, you know.
I mean, the glass was half full, whereas I'd lived my life

(01:11:37):
being half full, but now it was,you know, half empty.
However you wanted to look atit, you know it was.
I'm looking at the bottom end,not the top end, and you know it
just got to a point where I'mgoing.
You know they're not giving memoney to recruit with.
I have to use my own car and Ihave to.

(01:12:02):
You know, that guy had amassive head-on accident on a
beltway in DC.
I don't know how I livedthrough that, so many things
played into it.
And then I'll look up and, manboy, you're making $34,000 and

(01:12:22):
you're working 12 months a year,seven days a week, all the time
always.
Months a year, seven days aweek, all the time always.
And your wife is making threethousand dollars more than you
and enjoying the whole summeroff, enjoying the vacations and
the easters and the you know thelabor days and whatever, you're

(01:12:43):
out doing camp and beating thebushes and doing all that.
Oh man, yeah.
But this, this ain't this, thisisn't worth it.
And you know, I never forget.
I mean, I had the contract.
It was that north myrtle beachmiddle school I was gonna be a
pe teacher and I'm like, okay,if that's what it's got to be,

(01:13:05):
that's what it's got to be,that's what it's got to be.
At least I'll be able to spendtime with my family, I can coach
my own kids and do my own thingor whatever.
I just feel like that's whereI'm at.
So, on the way to hand it in,instead of mail it, I'm driving
down the main strip down here toget to 17, to go north and go

(01:13:31):
north myrtle beach.
Uh, 501 is uh where my churchis, and so, uh, honestly, it was
like I'm kind of like I'mcrying 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.

(01:13:51):
If it was right, I should behappy, for whatever reason, I
don't know.
I don't know if God pulled thesteering wheel to the right or
if I turned it to the right?
I honestly do not know.
For some reason, I ended up atour community church.
I walked in and asked is thereany chance Ronnie's here?

(01:14:17):
Ronnie Byrd was our pastor.
He was also a personal friend.
We'd gotten in the three yearswe'd been there.
He was growing this church.
My wife and I had been a partof doing years we'd been there,
we, he was growing this church,and you know, my wife and I then
, uh, you know they're a part ofdoing a lot of stuff.
They're not not money wise, butvolunteering and doing things
like that and stuff.
And his family.

(01:14:38):
Their ages were the same as asmy kids, so they got to be all
of them.
We'll get buddy and thank god,oh man, he was there.
He was there.
Yeah, we.
We talked for at least twohours, maybe more, about this
and that, whatever.

(01:14:58):
And you know I still remembertearing that contract up in his
office.
But to this day, I stillremember that feeling of like
okay, he just made me realizethat I can't expect God to step

(01:15:19):
forward on my timetable.
Just like you, go back 10 to2010.
I had a team that was 55 and 8.
Like you know, you go back 10to 2010.
I had a team that was 55-8.
And we don't make it to Omaha.
We ended up having five majorleague players off that team.

(01:15:40):
My son was one of the draftpicks on that team.
That killed me, absolutelykilled me, absolutely killed me.
I'm going all this hard work,all this stuff going back to I
mean, I'm thinking about tearingthe contract up and doing all
this.
God did that to see if I wouldbe humble to him, that I would

(01:16:12):
follow him without question,that I would be a disciple for
him.
And here he is going to give methis moment.
He's going to allow me to go toOmaha with an incredibly
talented team, but also my sonto get to experience this with
me.
There's nowhere going, there'sno shot where I'm going and then

(01:16:34):
we don't go.
And I'm telling you, man, thatin my life if there's ever been
a point where you toss the towelin, it was there.
I'll be honest, I mean I, Ijust like god.

(01:16:56):
How can this be?
You know?
I mean no, you know, on top ofthat, there would have been the
opportunity to the key to, youknow, kill, the evil giant
university of South Carolina,who we had been a branch school
of from inception until a fewyears before We'd been USC at

(01:17:18):
Coastal Carolina, we were partof their system, we had not been
our own school.
I'm thinking, man, this is theperfect stall, everything that
could ever possibly work theright way.

(01:17:38):
I couldn't have drawn this uphere.
I am not being faithful the wayI should be at times because of
this and that and doubting thatGod had me and this and that.
So you know, it was very allthat was so very interesting,

(01:17:59):
because I feel like I had noidea the things that happened at
LSU and then Omaha.
I wasn't prepared for.
I wasn't prepared for him to bein my life at that type of

(01:18:23):
level, so to speak, and so Ithink he surrounded me on
several occasions in my lifewhere I could have very well
gone down a different path andhe had other people,

(01:18:44):
faith-driven people, step intomy life and change me of my line
and changed me.
You know, uh, one of the keythings that happened in 16, a
good buddy of mine bought,bought me a book, uh, guy named
mark roach, uh, who was ourdevelopmental guy here.
He, he had played baseball atcoastal and and stuff and uh,

(01:19:06):
he's guys our assistant AD for awhile and then got into
development.
He put a book on my desk one dayover the summer of 15 by Todd
Gongwork.
It's called Lead for God's Sake.
That book changed my life and Iencourage anyone who listens to

(01:19:29):
this podcast buy that book$9.99.
And if it doesn't have asignificant impact on your life,
you tell Ken, I'll marry you to$9.99.
I cross the board if it's$1,000.
I'll mail it to you.

(01:19:50):
That's one of the best booksI've ever ever read, you know,
and it is, it is.
It's uh, you know, it's just anincredible book and out of work
that book taught me.
It's basically teaching youabout seeking your why W-H-Y and

(01:20:14):
why.
Why are you here, ken?
Why is Gary Gilmore here?
Why did God put us on thisearth?
What is it that he's asking ofus in our faithfulness to him?
What is it he's asking?
One of the things for me thatcame out of that book was that
the most important thing that heput me on this earth for was to

(01:20:38):
develop a relationship.
That's why he put me incoaching.
He gave me an opportunity tohave relationships with 40-plus
players every single year, a lotof times, steady staffs,
occasionally a change here andthere, but for the most part you
got to touch 40 lives everysingle year for 39 total years

(01:21:03):
and in that there's so manyaspects of relationship.
One of the things that came outof it for me was that In that
there's so many aspects ofrelationship.
One of the things that came outof it for me was that I needed
to be able to openly tell myplayers in all settings that I

(01:21:25):
love them, whether theysucceeded, they got the hit,
they threw the innings to winthe game, whatever it is.
They make the Dean's List, theymake this, whatever setting it
is.
We're walking down the hallway,walking down the sidewalk campus
.
We pass each other.
I need to look up over CO loveyou, man.

(01:21:48):
And just keep walking.
And so that they know andunderstand in my heart they're
just like my children.
I love them unconditionally.
None of them are perfect I'msurely not perfect but that
through love we can create adynamic power that other people

(01:22:12):
cannot circumvent if we trulylove one another.
Because the one thing thathappens when you do that, when
you have a group, especially inbaseball, and probably can say
that about a lot of sports orwhatever, or your teammates,
when a guy in front of you fails, the guy behind is going love

(01:22:35):
you, man.
I'm going to pick you up righthere.
I got you and we can go play byplay for those last 21 games of
Coastal's 2016 season.
I can show you where this guyfailed.
In a big setting, in a bigmoment, he failed.
The next guy picked him up overand over and over again and you

(01:23:01):
can watch them tell each otherthat mess Every time when
they're doing this or that.
I mean it's amazing.
And if one of them were to callme right now, every time when
they're doing this or that, Imean it's amazing.
And if one of them were to callme right now, I'd pick up the
phone call first thing out ofany of them's mouth that's
played in this program Coach, Ilove you.
That'd be the first thing thatcomes out of their mouth.

(01:23:24):
And that's probably of allthings in life.
I could take all the trophies,all the accolades, all the
things.
I would cherish that I love youmore than anything.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
You know I've kept you on for quite a while here
and I've got to finish up withone final question, and can you
share how the Brooks and Dunnsong, Red Dirt Road, became a
part of baseball?

Speaker 3 (01:24:00):
Coach Tom was my pitching coach, he was my music
boss.
All the players had walk upsongs or whatever you know, and
he was just he says, gil, yougotta have one stuff.
Yeah, man, you walk up.

(01:24:21):
You know, you turn in the lightup car to the umpire.
You need your walk up song toplay, man.
So he kept drilling me andgrilling me or whatever.
And he said he said what onesong tells everybody who you are
and what you're about?
I said I, you know.
I said I really don't know.

(01:24:41):
I said there's a bunch of songsI love and this and that I said
.
But you know, I said red dirtroad probably tells as much
about my life as anything.
I said, man, I grew up in acountry, on a farm.
I said I grew up on a red dirtroad.
Man, I said I learned to drinkbeer on that road.

(01:25:04):
I learned to chase girls onthat road.
I said I rode my, my, my little, uh, mountain bike to
elementary school on that road.
I said all my, all my buddiesthat lived on that road, I said
that that red their road, man, Isaid.
I said I learned everythingabout life on that road.

(01:25:27):
I said that it ran severalmiles and I said, you know, I
said so many things in my lifehappened on that, on a red dirt
road.
I said that's it.
And next thing I know they'replaying that thing and, uh, I
mean it's, it's crazy, I mean itreally is.

(01:25:47):
I mean it was really cool lastyear or two years ago, where it
is now, you know, kind of doingmy final hurrah that last year I
mean every single team weplayed on the road, their
coaches, every one of them didsomething to me or for me or
whatever.
It was so humbling and this andthat, but basically every one

(01:26:11):
of them play my red dirt road.
Where I went, the whole fight onthe road it was, it was, it was
really it was very cool.
To be honest, I mean ourplayers even got into it.
I mean you're like, oh yeah,you know just, you know, I just
I just um, and I never reallyrealized at the time, ken, I

(01:26:36):
feel like I'm an insanely humbleperson.
I never seek attention, neverwant attention.
Nothing I ever do do I do itfor attention, but you know, for
so, for all of those guys andso many people in this
profession that reached out tome and not to just congratulate

(01:26:57):
me on being able to retire in agood career.

Speaker 1 (01:26:59):
But, amen, your life impacted mine and just want to
say thanks yeah, that's, uh,that's just about every coach I
get on the podcast.
They, they, they talk about therelationships, probably more
than they talk about winning anygame or anything else in their
coaching career, and both of usare.

(01:27:29):
You know we're facing some verychallenging surgeries coming up
here and you know I want to wishyou the best of luck and you
know we're thinking how you'repraying for you.
And you know you're just trulya class act.
I met you years ago when I tookmy team down to Myrtle Beach at

(01:27:51):
Buckeye Valley, and you didn'tknow me from a man in the moon
and and you took the time totalk to me and, uh, you know
this is just one of the bigthrills of me getting a chance
to to do this podcast, to beable to have you as a guest.
And you know, I know, I, I, Ican't thank you enough and

(01:28:13):
you're clearly one of the bestto ever step in a dugout at the
college level and you know youwon a college world series.
But, more importantly, you'reyou're just a class act and a
great person and thank you somuch for joining me here on
baseball coaches.

Speaker 3 (01:28:30):
on club well, I'm very humbled and honored that
you asked me and, uh, I ditto tothe prayer for you and and your
challenges and health and, uh,you know, I I do.
I do think there are times when, uh think there are times when
God gives us challenges like theones that we have, to really

(01:28:55):
draw us super near to Him and toput our life in the will of His
hands.
I keep telling people that thisis going to go south on me.
When he feels like my work hereis done, I feel great, you look

(01:29:18):
awesome, you're working, stillgetting it done and doing things
.
As long as God has things for usto do, he's going to find a way
to keep us there.
We just have to trust in Him.
I'm sure He'll keep you in myprayers every night as well.
Hopefully, ken, we can do thisagain at some other time.

(01:29:40):
One thing that would be fun forme is if you ever put a podcast
together and we get five or sixof us coaches on at the same
time, we can have a lot of funand I think you could ask some
very cool questions and put uson the spot a little bit, and

(01:30:04):
you guys would be all over eachother, so I'd say you'd probably
be one of the more popularpodcasts are out there well,
absolutely, if you put the guestlist together and and I'll,
I'll take care of the others,the other part.
I'll.
I'll do that, I'll think aboutthat for a little bit and uh, uh
, think of uh, four or five guysthat you know that.

(01:30:26):
I know that would be anabsolute hoot on here and I
honestly think all podcasts aregreat, but the ones where there
are multiple people on there andyou kind of especially when
they know each other and theyknow things about each other or
whatever, and they can get a digin here and there it's actually

(01:30:47):
very knowledgeable, but it'salso a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Yes, I'm all winning.
So, coach, I thank you again.

Speaker 3 (01:30:55):
I I really do appreciate this oh, you're so
welcome, and may god be with you, and uh be with all the people
that listen to this, and uhappreciate you much, my friend
special thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:31:06):
Special thanks to 2016 College World Series
champion for the CoastalCarolina Chanticleers, gary
Gilmore, for joining BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
Be sure and tune in everyWednesday for a new show.
Today's episode of BaseballCoaches Unplugged is powered by
the netting professionals,improving programs one facility

(01:31:29):
at a time.
Contact them today at844-620-2707 or visit them
online at wwwnettingproscom.
As always, I'm your host Coach,ken Carpenter.
Thanks for listening toBaseball Coaches Unplugged,
thank you.