Gamecocks lose two baseball assistant coaches
Troy baseball has hired South Carolina pitching coach Skylar Meade as its head coach, the school announced Wednesday.
According to a Wednesday report by The Big Spur, USC head coach Mark Kingston will also lose assistant Trip Couch to work under first-year head coach Chip Hale at Arizona.
Arizona had not announced the hiring as of Wednesday afternoon.
Both Meade and Couch just completed their fourth seasons at USC. Meade led the Gamecocks pitching staff to a team ERA of 3.80 this season, fourth in the SEC. Couch served as recruiting coordinator and coached outfielders, like recent draftee Brady Allen, for the past two seasons, and he spent his first two seasons as USC’s director of player development.
“I think Troy got one of the risers among young college coaches today,” Kingston said in a statement regarding Meade’s departure. “We appreciate his passion for the game and desire to be the best. He will develop players and do a tremendous job representing the program publicly.
“He is prepared for this opportunity, and has a proven blueprint for success. We wish Skylar and his wonderful family all the best.”
A former pitcher at Louisville, Meade spent three seasons coaching pitchers at Michigan State before joining Kingston’s staff. He helped guide MLB draftees Adam Hill, Cody Morris and Carmen Mlodzinski, who was the 31st selection in the 2020 MLB Draft. Six Gamecocks pitchers were selected in 2021 draft, which concluded Tuesday.
“Skylar is a dynamic leader who has a proven track record of success,” Troy athletic director Brent Jones said in a prepared statement.
“We are excited to welcome Skylar, his wife Jesse and their two boys to the Troy Family. He is widely recognized as one of the top pitching coaches and recruiters in the nation. Skylar will build upon the great tradition and the history of success that Troy baseball is known for. I would like to thank our selection committee for their hard work in this process as Skylar rose to the top of an extremely deep and talented candidate pool.”
Couch joined USC’s staff after the second of two stints as an assistant coach at Houston, spending seven seasons under Todd Whitting after previously working for the Cougars in 1995-2000. Couch will be joining a new-look staff in Arizona that lost head coach Jay Johnson to LSU. The team’s new head coach, Hale, is a long time friend of Couch’s, according to The Big Spur’s report.
Under NCAA rules, college baseball teams are permitted to employ two full-time assistant coaches and a volunteer assistant.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Gamecocks lose two baseball assistant coaches."
