Mazey Returns to His Diamond Roots
February 13, 2015 10:29 AM | General
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| West Virginia coach Randy Mazey was a three-time All-ACC performer for Clemson in the mid-1980s playing for legendary Tiger coach Bill Wilhelm. | |
| WVU Athletic Communications photo |
That's because Mazey played four years there for legendary coach Bill Wilhelm, and then spent four more seasons working for Wilhelm as an assistant coach before spreading his wings in the coaching profession.
“It’s a place near and dear to my heart,” Mazey said earlier this week. “I haven’t been back since I took (wife) Amanda to see the Florida State football game before we got married, and we’ve been married for 10 years. It’s been 11, 12 years since I’ve been there. I know things have changed so I’m excited to see it.”
It’s been a lot longer than that since Mazey was an all-ACC outfielder for Wilhelm in the mid-1980s. Wilhelm was one of the true heavyweights in the sport, winning more than 1,000 games for Clemson during a storied coaching career that spanned nearly five decades.
Wilhelm won 17 ACC regular season championships, including two while Mazey was a player and two more when Mazey was an assistant coach, and Wilhelm’s Tiger teams made six College World Series appearances.
“Everybody in this profession has a mentor and he was mine by the way he coached kids and motivated kids,” said Mazey. “I catch myself doing a lot of the stuff he did when I played for him.”
Mazey said Wilhelm’s teams were built around outstanding athletes and his willingness to let those great athletes play the game freely.
“His philosophy was to have great athletes and do not over-coach them,” he said. “Let them be great athletes. That’s the one thing I learned from him – don’t over-coach a guy. Don’t micromanage every swing or every ground ball. He won over 1,000 games doing that.”
Today, players can get tips from just about anyone and from anywhere, says Mazey.
“These days with the Internet and Google if a kid has a bad day on the mound with his breaking ball he can go home and Google how to throw a breaking ball and get 14,000 different opinions,” said Mazey. “You just don’t want to overload their mind with stuff. We encourage guys a lot of times to just figure stuff out on their own and let their athleticism be their best teacher.”
Mazey said he learned that for himself playing at Clemson for an outstanding baseball teacher.
“My senior year we had three guys, myself included, who stole over 30 bases on the same team,” said Mazey. “He gave me the green light to run whenever I wanted to and that just went along with his philosophy of letting athletes be athletes.”
Today, former Wilhelm assistant coach Jack Leggett has maintained Clemson’s outstanding baseball tradition. Doug Kingsmore Stadium has turned into one of the nicest ballparks in the country with grandstand seating in the outfield and an average attendance that usually exceeds 4,000. Last year, Clemson was ninth in the country in attendance with an average of 4,379 fans per game.
It was the 13th consecutive year the Tigers have ranked among the nation’s top 20 in average attendance. Mazey recalls a much different atmosphere when he first visited Clemson back in the summer of 1984.
“I will never forget my recruiting visit after I graduated from high school,” he said. “It was aluminum bleachers just sitting on top of asphalt. I was really disappointed when I saw the facility at that time. I loved the place and loved the people, but the facility was disappointing.
“Now, it’s really, really nice. Over the last three opening days they’ve averaged over 5,000 people and the atmosphere now is as good as (anywhere),” he said.
Mazey played high school baseball in nearby Johnstown, Pa., at a time when good Northeastern players were expected to go south to play college baseball. That’s why he chose to go to Clemson instead of playing at a nearby university.
“That’s what everybody said to do and I did,” Mazey explained. “I was a big Penn State fan in high school and I would have loved to go to Penn State … football, yes, but not for baseball. So I went down there and I learned how to eat black-eyed peas and grits, fried okra and I still love that stuff to this day.”
What Mazey was a part of when Wilhelm was building Tiger baseball into an attraction is what Mazey now wants to do with WVU baseball. The Mountaineers have two big things in their favor right now – a brand new, state-of-the-art ballpark ready to open this year and a great baseball conference to play in.
Now, Mazey says the final thing that needs to happen is having the baseball calendar pushed back a few more weeks so growing programs in the northern part of the country can have the same good-weather benefits the southern schools now enjoy.
Mazey believes college baseball will never reach its full potential as a spectator sport and revenue generator until that happens.
“By the time March Madness (NCAA basketball tournament) is over and people are done being basketball fans, our season is almost half over,” he said. “We’re fighting some things that I’m trying to change in college baseball. When that happens WVU (baseball) could go through the roof. Hopefully, we’ll get that to happen and 10 years from now it will be hard to get a ticket to a WVU baseball game.”
Perhaps even just as difficult as it will be to get a ticket for today’s game against the Tigers.
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