By: James Gravley | WV Sports Chat
The head coaching search at South Carolina is officially over. And it won’t name West Virginia’s head coach Steve Sabins as its new skipper.
Instead, the Gamecocks will be naming Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall as its head coach according to reports.
However, before regional play began for West Virginia, it was heavily rumored that Sabins was one of the top two candidates for the vacancy at South Carolina.
According to reports from D1Baseball and The State (a Gamecock Newspaper) Sabins and Schnall were the top two candidates to become the new head coach of the Gamecocks.
In the article from Kendall Rogers, he wrote; “It will be interesting to see how fast things move if Coastal Carolina or West Virginia don’t make it out of their respective Regionals this weekend.”
Coastal was eliminated in the regionals while WVU has now played itself into Omaha with a loaded field with Troy, Ole Miss, UNC, UGA, Oklahoma, Texas and Alabama.
In Sabins first year as the Mountaineers’ head coach he took the program to Super Regionals which then in return West Virginia and Athletic Director Wren Baker gave Sabins a contract extension that went through 2031.
That contract extensions pays Sabins an additional $1.3 million and makes him the highest paid baseball coach in the schools history.
WV Sports Chat reached out to some officials within the baseball program and made it very clear during these rumors that Sabins was open with his team and the staff, but was “all-in” and “committed to building WVU baseball.”
Here is a direct quote from Sabins last week:
“This is a special atmosphere, special ballpark, special team. And we’ve won a lot of games, like a whole lot of games. There’s two programs in the country that have been to three consecutive super regionals. It’s us and North Carolina. For recruits to know that, for fans to know that, for people in this community to show out for one of the best teams in this country…that’s what this program is; it’s one of the best teams in the country. I think all that excitement starts from a passion of this state. It’s a passion for what WVU has going on. This team is the New York Yankees of West Virginia. People grew up watching the Mountaineers and rooting for the Mountaineers. And they spend a big chunk of their paychecks to drive into town and to come watch ball games because it’s important to them. I’m thankful for all the fans. I’m thankful for our president, our athletic director, our administration. They have gotten behind baseball 100%. They have decided that this is going to be something that’s going to be here to stay for a long time, and they’ve been dedicated. Not only providing the financial resources necessary, but the excitement and the care level. Showing up to ball games and showing our players and our staff that this is important to them. If you got a whole bunch of people pulling the rope in the same direction, you got a chance to do something special, and I think there’s a high level of belief here in that.”
Sabins is now 89-30 in two years as the head coach of the Mountaineers and helped lead the program to back-to-back super regionals and now its first ever trip to Omaha.
Photo: Shanna Rose – WV Sports Chat
