OMAHA, Neb. — Considering the run Coastal Carolina's baseball team is on — 26 straight wins on the way to the College World Series finals — it would be understandable if Gary Gilmore had second thoughts about retiring after last season.
Not a one, he said by phone Thursday as he pulled out of the driveway of his home in North Litchfield Beach, South Carolina, to head to his grandson's travel team tournament.
The 67-year-old Gilmore attended no Coastal Carolina games this season until the Chanticleers' first two in the CWS last weekend. He sat in the stands at Charles Schwab Field, uncomfortable as it was for the man who spent 29 years at the helm, led the 2016 Chanticleers to the national championship and is regarded as the godfather of program.
Gilmore said he and his family would be back for the best-of-three finals against LSU starting Saturday night.
''Is there a piece of my DNA in this thing? Absolutely. There's no doubt about it,'' Gilmore said, ''and I hope it will be for all time.''
But the 2025 Chanticleers are first-year coach Kevin Schnall's team, and Gilmore said he wanted to make a clean break and not give the impression he was looking over Schnall's shoulder. Schnall was Gilmore's assistant for more than two decades.
The grind of building Coastal Carolina into a perennial NCAA Tournament team and CWS contender caused Gilmore to sacrifice time with his wife and two children to chase championships, as coaches are wont to do. When he was hired as head coach in 1996, his office was in a trailer with no plumbing behind a weed-filled outfield. Twenty years later, the Chanticleers were national champions.
Gilmore could have said his work was done at that point, but he wasn't ready quite yet.