Opening day is CCU baseball coach Gary Gilmore’s last. What it means to his team and fans

Gary Gilmore has said he doesn’t want his last season at Coastal Carolina to be about him.

The head coach, who has more than 1,000 wins as head baseball coach at CCU, wants his last season before retiring to be about his team.

“We’re not playing for me; we’re playing for us. I don’t have any specific goals. I mean, when it’s over, and that it is what it is,” Gilmore said in a December 2023 interview with The Sun News. “I just want to try to coach and enjoy this year just like I have every other one. I’ve got an opportunity to be competitive as hell and just go out and battle every day and see if we’re good enough to be standing at the end and have a chance.”

But in some ways, Gilmore’s time at CCU coming to an end is an ever-approaching reality. Gilmore, who has dealt with cancer in his pancreas and liver since 2020, announced he was retiring after the 2024 season in May 2023.

Gilmore will look to begin the final chapter of his tenure at CCU against George Mason Feb. 16, 2024, at 4 p.m. ET at Spring Brooks Stadium.

CCU Associate Head Coach Kevin Schnall will replace Gilmore after the season.

Gilmore said in December 2023, he had a major surgery in November 2023 to address his health.

“I have one form of cancer I can never get rid of. I actually have a second one that they found that we operated on it,” Gilmore said. “Hopefully, I get some reprieve from it. Just take one day at a time. Appreciate every day; every day is a new day and another opportunity.”

What Coastal Carolina’s fans think about Gilmore’s legacy as he begins his final season at CCU

This season will be Gilmore’s last at his regular spot along the rail of the home dugout, gazing out onto the Spring Brooks Stadium baseball diamond. CCU fan Jack Jensen said Gilmore’s retirement was bittersweet as he watched Duke and Indiana play in the morning game of CCU’s opening weekend.

“I think he’s a great coach, and he’s going to be missed. It’s too bad that he’s leaving,” Jensen said. “He’s done a great job here.”

For many Coastal Carolina fans attending the final opening day games at Spring Brooks Stadium under Gilmore’s tenure, it’s a house he built.

“You’d never know (about his health) ... you never see a drop in his game; he’s always focused,” John Monteverde, who lives in Conway, S.C., said. “the stadium and the batting cages and everything, really testimony what he’s done. The way this program was when he got here to where it is now is, I mean, it’s a top-level program and the envy of a lot of teams across the country.”

Monteverde is a season ticket holder. Monteverde played baseball in college—he stood wearing a CCU hat and Mets jacket while watching Duke versus Indiana— and said Gilmore was charming when they met at the season ticket holders event before the season.

“Real receptive to the fans. The word comfortable comes to mind,” Monteverde said. ”Some programs and some teams you watch, you get a feel like they don’t have control over their team. (Gilmore) you never have an issue with that. He lets his players be his players.”

Fellow season ticket holder Derrick Cartrette agreed. Cartrette, whose children went to Coastal, sat four rows from the field adorned in black CCU attire, watching Duke and Indiana.

Cartrette’s seat had a direct view of Gilmore’s usual home dugout perch, one he’d take later that evening as CCU faced George Mason in their first game of the 2024 season.

“He’s always standing at one spot there most of the time,” Cartrette added. “Gilly is Coastal baseball.”

What impact Gilmore has had on his players

The love Gilmore’s players have for him is apparent, too. Coastal allowed them to continue playing the sport they grew up loving.

Relief pitcher Darin Horn was one such player. From Bluffton, S.C., the pandemic canceled his junior season, which he worried would jeopardize his future in baseball.

“I didn’t ever really see myself playing college baseball at that point,” Horn said in a Jan. 8, 2024 interview with The Sun News. “June and July came around, and I went out to put summer ball ... And then I got a call in middle July or early July, and it was Gilmore Coach Gilmore.”

Horn said Gilmore made his interest clear during that call, and Horn committed in August 2020. Catcher Derek Bender, who committed to CCU in Gilmore’s office after attending a summer camp, said Gilmore was also an integral part of his life.

“He has pushed me beyond belief both on and off the field to just be a better human being above all else,” Bender said in a January 2024 interview with The Sun News. “He took a shot on me in high school, and I’ll forever be in debt to him.”

Indeed, Gilmore’s successor, Kevin Schnall, once played for him as a catcher, too. Schnall, like Gilmore, is not focused on his future at Coastal ahead of the 2024 season. While he’ll eventually lead CCU’s baseball program, part of his job will be continuing the program’s success that started under Gilmore’s stewardship.

“The impact that he has made on this institution is utterly indescribable,” Schnall added.

However, Schnall’s time as head coach draws closer too, as with each game in the 2024 season, Gilmore’s retirement also comes more into view. Horn and Bender believe the 2024 Chants are good enough to make it to the Men’s College World Series in Omaha, winning Gilmore a second title and extending his time at Coastal.

Experts expect success from the Chants in 2024, but the college baseball environment is much different than when Coastal won it all in 2016.

The transfer portal and NIL have drastically changed how teams construct rosters, with smaller schools like CCU subject to losing their best players to bigger programs.

Despite Gilmore’s disdain for both, as he’s lost some of his best and up-and-coming players because of it, Gilmore’s scouting of seasoned players at lower levels of college baseball has yielded many quality players via the portal, including former Chant Payton Eeles, who finished 2023 with the 76th-highest batting average in Division I baseball.

“He was a giant,” Gilmore said of Eeles. “I’ve coached 39 years; he was a generational player.”

A giant in his own right, Gilmore has the opportunity to make his final season at Coastal generational as well.