Coastal Carolina baseball coach Gary Gilmore dealing with a health scare
Coastal Carolina head baseball coach Gary Gilmore is dealing with a health scare.
According to a release from CCU, Gilmore, 62, has recently discovered from preliminary tests that he has a large mass on his liver that his doctors believe may be cancerous.
Gilmore is scheduled to undergo further tests over the next few days to determine the nature of the problem and the next steps. He went to a doctor to receive treatment for a kidney stone and the mass was discovered.
Gilmore is in his 25th season as CCU head coach. He led the Chanticleers to the 2016 NCAA national championship and has amassed a career record of 1,216-604-4 in 30 seasons as a head coach, giving him the sixth-most wins among active Division I coaches.
He is 963-502-2 at CCU and won 253 games in six seasons at USC Aiken from 1990-95.
The CCU release was made in response to posts on social media, including a South Carolina Gamecocks fan forum, that Gilmore may have cancer.
Gilmore was not available for comment Saturday and it’s unclear if he will miss all or part of the 2020 season. It will likely depend on what type of treatment is necessary for the mass.
Gilmore has an experienced staff including associate head coach Kevin Schnall, who has been with him at CCU for 17 years over two stints, and pitching coach Drew Thomas and assistant Matt Schilling, who have both spent 14 years on the Chants coaching staff. All were part of the 2016 NCAA championship.
The Chants begin the season on Feb. 14 by hosting the Brittain Resorts Baseball at the Beach tournament. They face UNC Greensboro, San Diego State and Virginia Tech from Feb. 14-16.
Coastal is seeking its third Sun Belt Conference regular season title and third conference tournament title in their fourth season in the league in 2020.
Those conference titles are just the latest successes for Gilmore’s teams. His CCU teams have played in 16 NCAA regionals and three super regionals, and have won a total of 12 Big South or Sun Belt conference regular season titles and 13 conference tournament titles. He also reached the 1993 Division II College World Series with USC Aiken.
Gilmore, who played at CCU in 1979-80, was named the unanimous 2016 National Coach of the Year, is a two-time ABCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year (2005, ‘16), and was inducted into the USC Aiken Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 2:13 PM.
