Gilmore’s vision pays off with trip to Omaha

In the midst of the whirlwind of exhilaration and anticipation surrounding the Coastal Carolina baseball team, the university in general and its supporters this last week, it’s hard not to think back to the one moment that could have significantly altered the Chanticleers’ course well before this much-celebrated conclusion of the journey.

The Chants are in the College World Series for the first time, now one of just eight teams left competing for the national championship and realizing a dream coach Gary Gilmore set in motion more than 20 years ago, but one of his toughest obstacles along the way was a potential life-changing decision he had to make.

After leading Coastal Carolina to the NCAA super regionals for the first time in 2008, Gilmore was courted heavily by Auburn and offered the opportunity to coach in the SEC, one of the country’s premier baseball conferences, and at a school that could provide him far greater compensation and resources than his alma mater at the time.

“I can remember vividly at the time, I had really kind of resigned to the fact that he was probably gone,” said current athletic director Matt Hogue, who was then the Chants’ broadcaster. “He had such a tremendous offer at the time. … I know that was an incredibly difficult decision for him, and it was a tense time and I was kind of preparing myself mentally for who’s the next baseball coach.”

But, fortunately for the Chants, that’s not how history played out back then.

Gilmore thought back to that experience this week too and said, in his heart, there was only ever one decision to be made.

“I’ve never regretted it for one second,” he said. “There are times in life you get frustrated with this or that, you think for a second, ‘I might have done better if I would have done this.’ But only out of a momentary frustration of blowing off steam. Down in my heart this has been the only place. I’ve always said if I got to Omaha, I want to take this team and the good Lord gave me a chance to do that. And that’s a blessing I don’t know how I repay.”

It may have been the only decision he felt right about, but that didn’t necessarily make it easy.

University president David DeCenzo recounted this week his own perspective on that pivotal time for the university and its baseball program, and how it circles back to this moment here in Omaha as the Chants prepare to take on Florida in its College World Series debut Sunday night.

“We met several times, either over lunch or later in the evening, and I remember it as if it was yesterday,” DeCenzo said. “I remember when Gary actually got the invite and we met down in, I think it was Surfside [Beach], and he said, ‘I’m not sure.’ And I said, ‘Gary, you are going to kick yourself. You have to go. You owe it to yourself and your family to hear what they have to say.’ I think they were sending the Auburn plane down, so I said, ‘Get on the plane and go and then you come back and talk to me.’”

Gilmore did, Auburn made a strong pitch, showed him facilities far beyond comparison of what he had back at Coastal Carolina at the time and even talked about how the introductory press conference would go. But he returned home with the same thought in his mind.

“He and I met after that and he expressed that really this is where his heart was,” DeCenzo said. “I said, ‘I know that’s where your heart is, what do I need to do to keep you?’ And without batting an eyelash, he said, ‘I need a stadium. I’m a nationally-ranked team playing in something that is pathetic.’ And the previous stadium as we know did not have any of the amenities that really provided some basic level of baseball support. So as we were having our Diet Pepsi’s, I just looked at him and said, ‘Gary, I can’t tell you what to do with respect to Auburn, but here’s what I promise: I will build you a stadium.’ I said, ‘It’s not going to happen tomorrow.’ I said, ‘You’re going to have to trust me that at some point it is clear on my mind that we need to build a stadium if we’re going to continue to compete at the level that we all want our baseball to compete.’

“And so he said, ‘I appreciate you saying that because that right now is the most important thing.’ He said, ‘I’m not asking Coastal to meet the salary that Auburn would be offering. I know that’s not doable, but it is the facility.’ … But I said, ‘There’s one thing that I want.’ He kind of leaned back and said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘I’ll promise you I’ll build you a stadium, but you have to promise me you’ll take us to Omaha.’”

The stadium — which Gilmore has said he believes, along with the team’s indoor hitting facility, is one of the finest complexes in college baseball — opened last season.

And the Chants made his overall dream a reality last Sunday with a walk-off 4-3 win over Louisiana State to complete a two-game NCAA super regional sweep and secure their place in Omaha for the first time.

As he boarded the team bus after that game, DeCenzo said he shared part of that story with the players.

“I got on the bus to ride back with the team and congratulated the team, and I said, ‘I really want you all to know about what this man promised years ago, and in fact both our promises have been fulfilled,’” he said.

Said Hogue: “It encapsulates what’s already been a historic and Hall of Fame career because obviously he has that. He’s one of the greatest college baseball coaches our nation has ever seen, bar none. Now he sort of has that plaque to put on the wall that solidifies that. I’m just incredibly happy for him, and I think the biggest reason I’m happy for him is he committed to Coastal. He committed to this place and he committed to seeing the vision here.”

In hindsight, especially now, there really wasn’t any other decision to make as far as Gilmore is concerned — even if it might not have been so simple back in 2008.

“I get to take the school that I love, that I wanted to take, that all the years of these things that we did to get here is with Coastal Carolina,” Gilmore said. “That makes it 1,000 times more special than if I would have done it somewhere else. … I don’t know how another school could be in your heart more than this one is in mine.”

This story was originally published June 18, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Gilmore’s vision pays off with trip to Omaha."