Good article TR. Does not surprise me at all and I don't blame Coach Gilmore one bit for looking around. I have learned something from this. Never occurred to me consider how well schools compensate their coaches. It is one piece of useful information in trying to judge the stability of a program.
Look, when we visited Coastal we fell in love with the coaches, the campus, the location, and the beautiful baseball facilities. The package was so sweet it never occurred to me that the school may be low-balling their coach.
I sincerely hope they step up to the table and pay one of the top coaches in the nation what he deserves. If not, life goes on and we'll just have to deal with it.
Thanks for the link--it wasn't up at 6 AM. Looks like both coaches are capitalizing on their teams' success--and rightfully so. I would be suprised to see Gilmore go to Michigan State, since his son (I think) signed with UVa for next year.
********************************************** Baseball players don't make excuses...they make adjustments.
Posts: 3966 | Location: Lynchburg, VA | Registered: January 15, 2003
Interesting you bring up the Coastal Carolina coach. I guess he is well liked by the community down there.
I, however, have a little different opinion of him. We went to a tourney there 2 years ago, and played all of 2 innings (rain). When asked if some of our entry fee would be returned, he said he would get back to me. Still waiting on the money to this day.
Against my better judgement, I gave our coach the OK to return for another tourney, and they are playing down there this weekend. One of the assistants called me today to say that the coach running the tournament says that our game tomorrow (Sunday) will be umpired by a player behind the mound. The coach says he doesn't have any umps scheduled for our game, even though Sunday was a scheduled play day.
What the heck kind of operation is this? We will not be returning for another tourney at CC anytime soon.
Posts: 876 | Location: Mt. Airy, MD, USA | Registered: December 28, 2003
Larry, No offense directed to you Larry, but I do not know the whole situation you had or are having to deal with.
On the surface of what you say I do not disagree with your decision to not return to a tournament there, but I can tell you, as far as coaches, I would trust either one of them with my son.
Hope the negotiations are still on-going. If not I will be recommending players to wherever they end up.
Not for nothing but rain is not controlled by guys running tournaments--it happens-- I for one never expect a refund if it rains-
We were there last August when the hurricane hit we got to work out in front of 20 plus schools before the storm truly hit-- Coach Gilmore and his staff did everything they could to make it work but alaa the rain gods won out
The CC staff is made up of some the finest gentlemen in the business
Al...no offense taken. And I have no doubt that many of you have had great experiences with this staff. I ran tournaments for the Baltimore Metro League for many years. Some years the tournaments were disturbed by periods of rain. One year, almost the whole tournament was rained out. I refunded about 70% of the money to each team (had to pay some umpire showup fees). I wanted the teams to come back, and felt that they were already spending alot on transportation, hotels, food. I guess just because I looked at running a tourney a certain way, doesn't mean I should expect others to do the same.
Things didn't get off to a good start when we showed up a couple of years ago and found out the tournament was a "showcase" event, when we were told by Coach Gilmore that it was not a showcase, but a regular round robin style tournament.
I guess you could say we were in the minority in thinking this was a bad experience.
Posts: 876 | Location: Mt. Airy, MD, USA | Registered: December 28, 2003
I just want to say that Gary Gilmore is one of the most respected, compassionate, knowlegeable, and loved coaches in D-1 baseball. Many of the returning players will not want to return to Coastal without him. Here's hoping that he will be paid what he is worth, but if not we wish him the best.
Posts: 9 | Location: USA | Registered: July 01, 2005
Larry, You may want to get your facts straight. Your team was playing a make-up game from Thursday. Your coach was informed that they were having trouble finding a ump for Sunday morning. Your coach was informed as ASAP. Also your coach was given a call probably a 1/2 hour after the first call and informed they did have an umpire. I think it speaks well of Coach Gilmore to be straightforward and to let your coach know what is happening as it happens. It also gave your coach and the other coach the option of leaving on Saturday as they would have since they did not qualify for the finals on Sunday.
In my opinion, the only one who would be hurt would be the players from your team who would miss out on excellent baseball with 20 teams in front of some TOP and Mid D-1 players.
Not trying to be negative but you had some good solid ball players down there and it is a shame that a few of your ball players slammed their helmets and bats after they struck out in front of the college coaches which leaves a negative taste on the entire team. I would guess the coaches were saying "What the heck kind of operation is this?" about your program and the lack of discipline.
quote:
Against my better judgement, I gave our coach the OK to return for another tourney, and they are playing down there this weekend. One of the assistants called me today to say that the coach running the tournament says that our game tomorrow (Sunday) will be umpired by a player behind the mound. The coach says he doesn't have any umps scheduled for our game, even though Sunday was a scheduled play day.
What the heck kind of operation is this? We will not be returning for another tourney at CC anytime soon.
Posts: 70 | Location: NC | Registered: July 05, 2005
NCDad...thanks for the update. I was sitting down to prepare a revision when I saw your note. I got the full story from the coaches and they concurred with a timetable of events that you described.
I am still miffed at not being given a refund a couple of years back. So I guess that shaded my judgement in my previous posts.
As for the team, I am only involved administratively. I have not been the manager of the team since my dad passed away in 2003. I am truly disappointed to hear that players were throwing equipment in frustration. I had a long standing rule for 15 years of coaching that said "if you throw a piece of equipment, your next 2 actions would be to pick it up and then take a seat on the bench." I will speak to our coach regarding your observations. Of course, I will get to the bottom of it. I don't think throwing equipment, profanity or general bad behavior reflect well on a baseball program.
Thanks for the update.
Posts: 876 | Location: Mt. Airy, MD, USA | Registered: December 28, 2003
As a question or announcement the title of this thread is irresponsible.
Shame on you Larry. Another thread thoroughly covered this situation. Do your homework.
There are friends of mine that are very concerned about this situation and I for one thought coach Gilmore had indeed resigned when I read this title. Very bad form indeed.
Posts: 3326 | Location: River Forest | Registered: January 12, 2004
What are you talking about? I didn't start this thread. I was commenting on an experience my program has had attending tournaments at Coastal Carolina the last few years. I admit that my comments had little to do with the thread, but I am innocent of inferring that the coach had resigned or quit. I knew nothing of the situation until I saw the thread topic myself.
Perhaps I need to do my homework...and you need to read these threads a little more careful.
Posts: 876 | Location: Mt. Airy, MD, USA | Registered: December 28, 2003
Soxnole - I started this topic and please notice it was put in the form of a question, not a statement of fact. You are wrong in your judgement of intent - maybe you should re-read it.
My information came from a recruit who was told by the coach that he is leaving and that his assistant will take over. We are looking at this college too, so I was asking for more information since it was second hand. The article by TRHit answered my question - the man is underpaid and probably likes to eat, so who would blame a successful coach for simply trying to better his life. Since I don't surf small town newspapers, I would not have gotten this info if I had not asked the question. I knew somebody out there in cyberspace could provide such info.
I hope CC works it out with Coach Gilmore, but if the CC administration is always going to think small, they will always be small. Successful people want to remain successful and many times they move on to employers who think big and expect success.
+++++++++++++++++++ If you want to end our conversation, then tell me baseball is "boring".
Posts: 29 | Location: USA | Registered: January 01, 2005
Ok. Back on topic. Coach Gilmore has not resigned and is still in negotiations with Coastal. I spoke with the #1 assistant (Coach Jarman) this morning and he said everything is business as usual and they are currently planning for the future. He expects the coach to get a new contract but, of course there are no guarantees.
Next stop, I called the athletic director at the behest of lafmom which was a good idea. He said he just had lunch with Coach Gilmore and hopes to get a new contract worked out possibly by the end of the week. He felt the school was unfairly portrayed as cheap skates by the newspaper article TRhit posted. He did say however that if a big school comes in and offers big bucks (hundreds of thousands) that Coastal would not be able to compete with that type of offer. Again, no guarantees, but he did sound hopeful that a deal could be worked out.
Al's Jake. Sorry if I over reacted, but I still think that until a resignation is fact, no post should be made to infer in any way, that it is.
Recruits, player's, thier parents and anyone that is concerned about coach Gilmore's situation deserve better.
Obviously if coach Gilmore was REALLY telling recruits that he was leaving, we'd know by now. I'm certain he would not allow the decision to be announced by a recruit.
Posts: 3326 | Location: River Forest | Registered: January 12, 2004
Soxnole, I think you are still missing my point. It is very important to our particular situation, so I was asking the question knowing that I can get some truthful info off of the HSBW. If it is not true, then all anybody had to do is say is no, it is false rumor and all would be right with the world. I'm glad I asked the question, because in response to that question the info from TRhit provided my with what we need. Perhaps my question also was the catylst to prompt somebody close to the situation to talk directly to the people involved. ClevelandDad seems to have grabbed the bull by the horns on this. Also, thanks for the info.
You are right about at least one point, however - recruits deserve better. Put yourself in the position of a recruit and his family. If the coach is even CONSIDERING leaving, we need to know. His replacement may be very different in attitude, temperament, philosophy, etc. If I just stand by and get blindsided with some big press relase or announcement, then I didn't do my homework. A friend's son had this happen to him - 1 month after he enrolled - and it has been a nightmare for them. Loves the school, hates the new coach. Had they known beforehand they would have made a different choice. The dad feels bad because he didn't see it comng. Perhaps if he had asked around the red flags might have come up. Life is too short to have those kind of regrets.
The coach is apparently told some people that he is considering it, including some recruits (yes, soxnole, it did happen) and the press. I doubt that reporter came up with the idea on their own. I have no problem with any of that, but before my recruit makes any committments, we want to know yes or no. If he is leaving, then we want to meet his replacement and be comfortable with such a big life-changing decision.
Again, I hope Coach Gilmore works it out with CC and CC starts to think big!
+++++++++++++++++++ If you want to end our conversation, then tell me baseball is "boring".
Posts: 29 | Location: USA | Registered: January 01, 2005
