Most successful sports figures have faced adversity at some point during their careers that made them rethink their professional choices. Coastal Carolina head baseball coach Gary Gilmore is no exception. As a matter of fact, he was just a few turns on Highway 501 from never putting his alma mater on the map. Fortunately for CCU baseball, Gilmore’s faith kept him in the dugout.
“I was done. I had the thing signed in my hand,” Gilmore said of an elementary school contract that would have him teaching physical education. “Coastal was a wonderful place at that point in time. My dreams and desires of where I wanted to go were not the dreams and desires of the university at that point in time. It was very frustrating; we weren’t very good. The facility had run itself down. It was just tough. I was putting 24/7 into it all the time.”
But Gilmore said a tug at his heart and a conversation with his pastor in 1997 kept him coaching at the place he always wanted to be.
“It’s like God took the steering wheel and just yanked it to the right and said, man, before you do this, go in there and have a sit-down with this guy (Pastor Ronnie Byrd). We talked for almost two hours. He made me look at some things a little bit different. Made me realize that I couldn’t put a timeline on God’s plan.”
That plan has included over 1,100 wins, 13 conference championships, a national championship, and his #14 jersey now hanging on the outfield wall of the stadium he helped come to pass.
On Tuesday, the Chanticleers were scheduled to play Clemson in their final regular-season home game. That contest could have served as perhaps the last time Gilmore would be perched on the top step of the home dugout at Springs Brooks Stadium. However, the game was cancelled due to rain, affording the veteran coach ample time to spend with SportsTalk and enjoy his “walk-up song” one more time.
CCU HC Gary Gilmore — SportsTalk Conversation
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