Gary Gilmore
Head Coach | Coastal Carolina Baseball
In his own words…
Coastal Carolina head coach Gary Gilmore, who is entering his 25th season at his alma mater in 2020, was named the 2016 National Coach of the Year and has seen the Coastal program continually rise in the world of college baseball to a national power.
A two-time ABCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year (2005 and 2016) and a 10-time conference Coach of the Year, Gilmore ranks among the NCAA’s all-time top 30 in wins with 1,216 and enters the 2020 season ranked sixth overall in wins among all active NCAA Division I head coaches.
Under his guidance, Coastal won the 2016 NCAA College World Series, has made 16 NCAA berths and advanced to a Super Regional three times. In addition to team success, the program has featured numerous draft picks - including 21 players drafted within the top 10 rounds over the last 12 years and built perhaps the best overall practice and playing facilities in the nation.
Before returning to his alma mater in 1996, Gilmore spent six seasons as head coach at USC Aiken, where he compiled a 256-102-2 record. He posted 40-win seasons in his first four years there, including a school-record 48 wins in 1991. In 1992, he led USC Aiken to the Peach Belt Tournament Championship and the NCAA Division II postseason. The following year in 1993, the Pacers once again won the Peach Belt Tournament title and advanced all the way to the NCAA Division II College World Series.
In 1993, Gilmore was named the ABCA NCAA Division II Coach of the Year, as well as the South Atlantic Region and Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year by his peers. USC Aiken added a regular-season conference championship in 1994. During his stint at USC Aiken, Gilmore coached nine all-conference performers, including once conference player of the year in Adam Riggs, and had nine players drafted.
Prior to his coaching career, Gilmore worked as a scout for the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians. Gilmore played center field for Coastal Carolina during the 1979 and 1980 seasons where as the lead-off hitter he hit .353 with 69 steals in 90 games. After graduating in 1980, he played professionally in the Philadelphia Phillies organization.
Gilmore and his wife Cathy have a son, Chance, a daughter, Samantha, and two grandsons - Liam and Hank
