‘My heart’s here’: This man will take over CCU’s baseball program in Gilmore’s absence
It appears inevitable that 25-year Coastal Carolina University baseball coach Gary Gilmore will leave the program for an extended period at some point this season.
Gilmore said he is at the top of a list to receive treatment for liver cancer at the heralded MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
When Gilmore, 62, gets the call from MD Anderson, he will be handing the reins of the program over to a trusted assistant.
Associate Head Coach Kevin Schnall, who played for Gilmore at CCU and has been his assistant for 17 years over two stints from 2001-12 and 2016 to this year, will be the acting head coach in Gilmore’s absence this season.
Schnall has been the acting head coach for the first two of Coastal’s five scheduled games this week because Gilmore is in Houston for consultations with doctors. It’s unclear when he’ll return from his first visit to MD Anderson since the season started.
Schnall, an All-American catcher and member of the university’s Sasser Athletics Hall of Fame, is also the team’s recruiting coordinator and instructs hitting and catchers.
“I’m 100 percent prepared and I’m fortunate that I’m surrounded by a great staff that will play a major role in our success and also play a major role in the decisions I make,” Schnall said. “The thing with working for Coach Gilmore is he never really micromanaged his staff. He’s always given us tremendous freedom, and I think that type of leadership gives us much more confidence to lead the team in his absence.”
Schnall has seemingly been a head coach in waiting for several years.
“He’s one of the better coaches in the country. We won’t miss a beat,” Gilmore said following CCU’s season-opening win over UNC Greensboro on Feb. 14.
Schnall has twice been recognized by Baseball America in a survey of college head coaches as one of the nation’s top assistants, ranking seventh prior to the 2013 season and sixth prior to the 2018 season. Also in 2018, Schnall was named one of the top 15 assistant coaches in the NCAA by D1Baseball.com.
Schnall will have experienced coaches to lean on, as pitching coach Drew Thomas and assistant Matt Schilling have both spent 14 years on the Chants coaching staff and were part of the 2016 NCAA championship team.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is the continuity of our staff and the asset that is. Our staff from a continuity standpoint is as good as any staff in the country, so that part I think will make the transition a little bit easier,” Schnall said. “A lot of it stems from [Gilmore’s] leadership that the foundation of this program is extremely sturdy. Our staff is fully prepared and confident to make all and any adjustments needed moving forward with the situation.”
Thomas is in full control of the pitching staff.
“Drew is really the head coach of the pitching staff,” Schnall said.
Thomas also has two assistants working with the pitchers for the first time, as College World Series hero Mike Morrison has returned to the program as a student manager after three years in the minor leagues and Matt Heidenreich is a student assistant.
If and when Gilmore leaves the program, Schnall said Director of Baseball Operations Chad Oxendine, a CCU alum in his 14th season as a college coach, will become an on-field coach.
Defensively, Schnall works with catchers, Schilling works with infielders and Gilmore works with outfielders, which Oxendine will do in his absence.
Schnall shares hitting instructor duties with Schilling, who is also Coastal’s summer camps coordinator.
Coastal has had several prolific offenses during Schnall’s tenure, including in 2016 when the Chants led the NCAA in home runs (96) and runs scored (516) while ranking fourth in hits, fourth in walks drawn and fourth in sacrifice bunts.
Last season, CCU was in the top six among 300 Division I programs in runs scored, runs per game, hits, home runs, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, sacrifice flies and hit by pitches.
Between his Coastal stints, Schnall spent three seasons as a hitting instructor and recruiting coordinator at Central Florida (2013-15).
In Schnall’s first season at UCF, catcher/third baseman Chris Taladay was Conference USA Player of the Year after leading the team with a .342 batting average, 43 RBIs and a .409 on-base percentage.
“I thought that was very valuable, because I played for coach Gilmore too, and at that point I was coaching with him for 12 years and I just felt like I had to see a different perspective,” Schnall said. “I went down to UCF and worked under Terry Rooney and I learned a lot, I really did. I was able to see a little bit of a different system, but obviously I was fortunate to be able to come back.
“My heart’s here. I played at Coastal and there’s something a little bit different about this place, and this is a really special place for me.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 1:51 PM.
