Coastal Carolina’s Gilmore named national coach of the year

The day before the biggest game of his career, Coastal Carolina baseball coach Gary Gilmore received the highest and most distinguished honor of what has now most certainly been a legendary run with the Chanticleers.

Gilmore was presented with the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association National Coach of the Year award Saturday morning inside TD Ameritrade Park on the first day of the College World Series, with his Chants set to play top-seeded Florida on Sunday in their first game of the bracket.

In his 21st season at Coastal Carolina, his alma mater, Gilmore has led the Chants to a 49-16 record, a dramatic clinching victory at the NCAA regionals in Raleigh, N.C., and then a stunning sweep in the super regionals at Louisiana State last weekend to earn the programs’ first-ever College World Series berth.

And while it might have seemed this month couldn’t get any more special for Gilmore and the Chants, it did Saturday.

“This is a very humbling experience for me,” Gilmore said upon accepting the award. “From about 20 some years ago getting to Coastal, being in a FEMA trailer for I think 16-17 years to where we’re at today has been an awesome journey. …

“Coastal Carolina, they took a huge chance 21 years ago on a guy that happened to be an alum that had a lot of passion. I just want to thank them. They gave me an opportunity and I can never thank them enough for what they’ve done. And all the coaches and players. I feel like I have one of the top staffs, if not the top staff in the country, and the amount of work these guys do, I get to accept the award, but it’s an award for all of us, I can promise you that. … The best job any human being in the world could have is the job I have.”

With his family in attendance Gilmore thanked his wife Cathy for her role over the course of his career, he thanked his assistants in the official news conference and again afterward, and he thought back to his father in a touching moment on the eve of Father’s Day.

“I lost my dad a couple years ago. He was my best friend and taught me probably 99 percent of what I know about the game of baseball, and I know he’s looking down on me,” Gilmore said. “He and I spent a lot of years and a lot of times growing up talking baseball and how to play it and how to do it right, and Dad, I miss you and I love you.”

Gilmore said he was told he had received the award Friday night on the ride back after the College World Series’ opening ceremony. He said it needed some time to sink in, but not for his players.

“The kids flipped out on the bus last night. That was probably the most humbling moment in my life. I honestly think most of them were more excited than I was, which is crazy,” Gilmore said.

Gilmore ranks 36th all time in wins among Division I head coaches and 13th among active coaches with 1,094 career victories over 27 seasons, including the first six at USC Aiken.

This College World Series appearance is the crowning achievement of that resume, and the national coach of the year award – chosen by a committee – further seals Gilmore’s legacy as one of college baseball’s best.

“It’s a culmination of many years of sweat, tears, you name it. The emotions, I can’t describe all of them, to be very honest with you,” he said. “The fact that so many other people voted for a small mid-major guy to receive this award among all the great programs and great schools is unbelievable.

“To get an award that says your peers see you as the top college coach for that particular year, honestly, of all the awards I’ve received over my career and my teams have received, this is probably one I never thought I would ever get. I thought you’d have to win a national championship to ever receive that type of recognition. And I’m very humbled by it. It’s an unbelievable honor.”

This story was originally published June 18, 2016 at 12:48 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina’s Gilmore named national coach of the year."