‘Forever Young’: Reminiscing on six special years

Looking back now, I had no idea what I was walking into six years ago. I think that’s fair to say.

I knew Coastal Carolina was a growing university with a great baseball team, a young football program that had experienced some immediate success and a proven coach trying to rejuvenate the men’s basketball program.

I did not know, however, that covering the Chanticleers would include chronicling a College World Series championship – which still feels surreal, by the way – along with two NCAA basketball tournaments, football playoff games in places like Montana and North Dakota (twice), and above all, watching up close as a school and its athletics identity forced its way onto the national scene.

Simply put, I can’t imagine there has been a more interesting FCS-level (now soon to be FBS) university to cover in that time.

And so as much as those two weeks in Omaha are still sinking in, so too is the reality that the College World Series championship is the final Coastal Carolina game I will cover for The Sun News.

As many know, I have accepted a position with SEC Country covering University of Florida football.

Before I formally leave and settle into that new job, though, I’ve been reflecting. On the highlights from these last six years, on the the memorable trips (and the less memorable ones) and on the relationships created along the way.

It couldn’t have been more than two weeks into my time on the beat when former football coach David Bennett organized an impromptu press conference after an August scrimmage and had every player join the media in the team room on the third floor of Adkins Field House, presumably for the purpose of getting his players used to the interview routine for the upcoming season.

He introduced me as the new beat writer, and in the theatrical and animated manner in which only he could, with his voice crescendoing in volume, he reminded his players – as all eyes turned my direction – that it was up to them if I wrote nice things about the team or held them accountable for their missteps. That wasn’t quite the diction he used, but that was the gist of the message and I guess an accurate summation of a beat writer’s role.

As well as quite the introduction.

And certainly there have been controversial and at times polarizing matters to cover, along with the successes and telling the personal stories of the individuals who would shape and impact the overall narrative of this growing athletic department.

Either way, it’s never been dull here. Not for a moment.

From the cats and dogs press conference to a bold coaching change that divided the fan base as university president David DeCenzo replaced Bennett, the architect of Coastal Carolina football, with Joe Moglia, chairman of the board of TD Ameritrade, who could have imagined the sweeping makeover that was to come for a program that had not long before been held up as a model for schools thinking of starting a Division I football team from scratch? And then for Moglia and his coaching staff to step right in and lead that program to new heights with four straight FCS playoff berths, No. 1 national rankings and record-setting offensive production, as almost every relevant national media outlet came to profile his unique story and most all of those locally who questioned his hiring came to rally around him and his “BAM” mantra?

If it had only been football, it would have been more interesting than anyone covering a school this size could have imagined.

But then there was men’s basketball and watching Cliff Ellis – trying to script one more chapter in an already accomplished career – go from falling just short of an NCAA tournament breakthrough in 2010-11 while finishing the season with just eight active players to later ending a 21-year wait for the school and earning back-to-back NCAA berths in 2014 and 2015.

Ellis might well have one of the most interesting Wikipedia pages for any collegiate coach – with lines like “He is a musician, an author and a gourmet cook. He has even been an ostrich farmer. He and his music group, The Villagers, were one of the Southeast’s hottest acts in the mid-1960s.” – but I have wondered in recent years if fans fully respect his stature in the game, with nearly 800 overall wins, a national coach of the year award from his time at Auburn and now a memorable twilight run with the Chants.

Meanwhile, there was Shaun Docking’s men’s soccer program launching a string of six straight NCAA tournament berths and breaking into the top 10 in the national rankings.

I would love to know the jobs or interview opportunities Docking has turned down to stay at Coastal Carolina and keep building his program. He’s as humble about his success as any coach I’ve ever covered. I recall him telling me convincingly before the 2015 season that the program was in a rebuilding year and full of questions, only to then climb as high as No. 4 in the national polls.

For that matter, there have been compelling breakthroughs, records and individual feats across the athletics spectrum, in golf, tennis, softball, cross country and track and field, volleyball and more.

And yet for all of the aforementioned, there is no better story than the final one and watching Gary Gilmore’s career project culminate in such an epic and incredible way with that College World Series championship.

While so many have helped put Coastal Carolina athletics on the national map, Gilmore and his team made the Chants national champions – a title that will forever help define the school.

I’ve never covered any coach quite like Gilmore. Heck, I’m not sure I’ve known anybody who wears his emotions on the exterior in as sincere and frank a manner as he does, or who is so intently driven by a goal.

Nobody has taken losses – routine, mid-season losses – harder, I’m quite certain. Journalists aren’t supposed to root for outcomes of events they cover, but man, there were no doubt times I cringed at the prospect of a postgame interview after a frustrating loss and hoped for a ninth-inning rally for my own personal reasons.

That said, some of my absolute favorite moments covering Coastal Carolina have been sitting down with Gilmore and listening to him tell stories from his career and of the obstacles he faced over the last 21 years in turning his dream for his program and his school into a reality. Interviews that were supposed to last 10 minutes have turned into 20 minutes, a half hour or more.

His passion for what he does is unrivaled, and to see him reap the recognition and payoff for that and for 21 years of striving and grinding and pushing and believing and, again, willing the realization of his dream was the best story I have or might ever cover.

For as much as Gilmore and the Chants had to overcome to get from the starting point to where they ended up in Omaha a few weeks ago, the final steps couldn’t have come easy – it wouldn’t have fit the narrative.

So it was perfectly poetic that it came down to the final pitch of the final inning of a winner-take-all third game as Alex Cunningham blew strike three past Arizona’s Ryan Haug with the potential tying and go-ahead runs stranded in scoring position.

And on that note, having watched the growth of this school and its athletic programs the last six years, it seems a fitting time for me to move on as well.

I don’t need separation, though, to know that covering Coastal Carolina has been a special experience, and that goes back to the people.

That passion and dedication for the Chants that Gilmore brought to the national spotlight in Omaha is reflective of a theme that runs throughout the university. From DeCenzo and chairman of the board of trustees Wyatt Henderson, to athletic director Matt Hogue and not only the aforementioned coaches but others as well, there is an unmistakable depth of connection and commitment to the cause that does not exist everywhere.

That’s the overarching story for Coastal Carolina and one I’ve enjoyed telling these last six years.

As I head out, I’d like to express sincere thanks and appreciation to all of the university leaders, administrators and coaches for their time and cooperation over the years; a special thanks to Mike Cawood, Cody Bays and the rest of the sports information department for their own commitment and passion and the excellent work they’ve done that in turn has made my job easier every step of the way; and, certainly, to the readers and fans of Coastal Carolina who have made the work especially worth doing.

These last six years have been unlike anything I could have imagined and an experience that has no doubt shaped and impacted me along the way as well.

This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 7:58 PM with the headline "‘Forever Young’: Reminiscing on six special years."