MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Right around this time last year, West Virginia University was planning the orderly transition from Randy Mazey to top assistant Steve Sabins to lead the Mountaineer baseball program at the conclusion of the 2024 season.
 
Eleven months ago, when the succession plan was announced by WVU Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker, the idea was for things to continue in a normal fashion with Mazey coaching his 12^thand final campaign and then passing the baton on to Sabins once the season was finished.
 
What transpired couldn't have operated any better with West Virginia advancing to its first-ever Super Regional and Mazey riding off on a white horse into the sunset.
 
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Sabins quietly and respectfully did as he has done for the last four seasons as an associate head coach, and nine overall with the program – just going about his business. He didn't do a lot of interviews because it wasn't time for him to do a lot of interviews.
 
Now that the season's work is finished and Sabins is occupying Mazey's chair in the big office at Kendrick Family Ballpark, the time has arrived for Sabins to become the face of Mountaineer baseball as its 20^th head coach.
 
A special United Bank Playbook interview with Sabins posted this afternoon on WVU's social media channels and official YouTube page, WVUsports, and tomorrow morning, an introductory press conference has been scheduled with the media.
 
In the meantime, I was able sit down with the Austin, Texas, native to get his thoughts on taking over what has now turned into a top-25-caliber baseball program that Mazey once resurrected from the dead, and where he hopes to take it in the coming years.
 
Here is part one of our exclusive sit-down interview:
 
John Antonik: The transition has been going on for a year now and you have had a lot of time to think about it and what direction you want to take the program. Where are you in that process right now?
 
Steve Sabins: I think having the year has been the luxury piece of it and the best thing about being named head coach-in-waiting is you have a year to basically evaluate everything in the program. It was very easy for me to stand by, be the assistant and do what I've done for years. You know what those responsibilities are, but as you are going along, you kind of say to yourself, 'alright, I would like to do that a little bit different' or 'man, we do such a good job at that, and we've got to keep moving that part of it forward.'

It's been a year of evaluating everything that you do every single day, so you take notes, you talk to people and compare things and for the first time in my career I've been able to look at the big picture instead of just hammering away at recruiting, hammering away at hitting or hammering away at my individual responsibilities. 
 
Antonik: There is a juggling act to doing that because you want to be in the now, but at the same time, everything is kind of pointing toward the future.
 
Sabins: Yes. I think that's what I am most proud of because it takes an intentional mindset to not get ahead of yourself. It's very easy to think of the future. It's very easy to think, 'Well, I would do this differently.' It's probably been the most humbling year for me because there are certain things that, naturally, anybody would do differently if they are in a different seat or in a different leadership role. 
 
To be able to sit back and say, 'I'm all-in as an assistant coach,' that's what I signed up for. There is nothing I can do about certain things, but I've got to be all-in here and if I want to make some changes later on, then I will move forward with doing that. I was proud of how coach Mazey allowed me to have a very strong voice in some areas that maybe he had been the leader of before. The staff was juggling this, too, because they knew there was a future as well, so for us to have success in a transition year was cool for me because I was proud of the people we worked with and the players had to handle that, too. They knew there was the dynamic of transition as well and sometimes the players or staff might try and feed off that to see if people are all-in in certain areas, so you really have to stay strong with your belief that the togetherness of the program is the most important thing.
 

Antonik: I noticed you were very mindful that this was Randy's last year, and he wanted to make this about the players on the team and you kind of stayed in the background and didn't do a lot of interviews. You kind of just did your job and let the season play out the way that it did. Was that how you wanted to approach things this year?
 
Sabins: Absolutely. It wasn't my year. I wasn't the head coach. I was the assistant coach, so I thought it was really important to do that. I think it could only work in that instance. It needed to be about Randy and our players this year. That guy has been grinding it out as the face of West Virginia baseball by taking the program to where it's never been before and that needed to be celebrated. It didn't need to be about anything other than that. 
 
And part of it was that I got into baseball because I like developing baseball players and people. I didn't need the other stuff. The other stuff comes as you grow inside your position and you have success, but I didn't go to work every day needing that. I would prefer it be the other way.
 
Antonik: Well, that's obviously changed now. Doing interviews and becoming the face of the baseball program is now a big part of what you have to do as the head coach. Before, I would guess it was probably 95% on-the-field baseball stuff … put the team together, get the team ready and now you've got all of these other things that are part of being a power conference head baseball coach. Did you ever discuss those things with Randy – things he probably didn't always want to do but are necessary in this role?
 
Sabins: That has really happened over the last nine seasons. He knew that I wanted to be a head coach so with that intention, he involved me in so much stuff throughout the last nine years.
 
Antonik: Such as?
 
Sabins: Scheduling, recruiting, scholarships, the hiring processes, interviews … basically he and I saw each other every day for nine straight years, and I was a part of every decision that got made in this program at one point. The reason we've been successful is we've worked fast, and he has trusted me in so many areas, and I think sometimes programs can stalemate because there is not enough time for a head coach to do everything at a very high level. Things are now moving quickly in the NIL era. You've got to make decisions on players and move, shuffle and hustle and there is not always time to make check marks in every box.
 
He's given me so much responsibility throughout the years and I've been able to grow in those other areas, this year especially. I knew that I needed to be ready in a lot of areas if we wanted to have a seamless transition and so it's been a learning year and we've been able to win on top of it, which is just unbelievable. That was the cherry on top.
 
Antonik: Is it important for you to be Steve Sabins and not Randy Mazey, and if so, who is Steve Sabins?
 
Sabins: Absolutely. I think that's the most important thing that you can be is authentic to yourself as a coach, staff member or player. I just talked to (assistant coach) Jacob (Garcia) about JJ Wetherholt's leadership and how he has evolved. The misinterpretation is that sometimes becoming a leader means you are more vocal, or you are louder. I told him JJ was being a gorilla running off the field during the regionals. He was having the most fun of his life, but the reality is that he was just being who he is. He was being authentic and being himself. 
 
I always told Randy we are like yin and yang. I'm type A where he is relaxed. He is a very different personality from me. I'm a quick decision maker, and he would always tell me to never make a decision until you have to. We have different personalities, so I won't be able to change my personality, but there are a lot of things that I learned from him that I will absolutely incorporate, and at this point, you can't help it. I've seen Randy more than my wife and kids over the last nine years. I had no choice, and hopefully he feels the same way about me. We've been able to help each other and some of those things ended up meshing a little bit, but you've got to lead with your heart. You've got to be authentic, and you've got to make sure that you are staying true to yourself.

Antonik: My understanding is a lot of the data and analytical stuff used in the program was your doing. Randy was the instinctive guy who took all those years of experience sitting in a dugout watching games and using that to his advantage. Would you say that's a fair and accurate representation?
 
Sabins: That's very fair and very accurate. I learned so much about strategy and his great instincts and his great feel for the game – certain giveaways, pitch calling and base running, for instance. I learned more baseball in my time here than I had over the course of my life. I was able to bring some technology and some new thoughts in regard to data, analytics and things I thought were important when he hired me. I was a 27-year-old at that time, and I was the youngest Power Five assistant in the nation. He went with a young guy that was really hungry that he thought could challenge him in certain areas and he found out quickly that I was passionate about certain things. He's a guy that tests his players and his staff. 'If it's that important to you then you are going to have to show that it's important to you. You have to stand your ground and show why this is so important.' I was able to do that, and I think I gained respect from Randy in that regard. 
 
I think that's been part of our progression is that we haven't lost our identity as baseball coaches with feel and some heart and guts first, but we're also never afraid of incorporating new ideas with technology and grow from that.
 
Antonik: I talked to (former assistant coach Derek) Matlock recently and when he was here, he was much more familiar with Texas and that part of the country. He was getting his brains beat in recruiting on the East Coast so he gravitated to Texas because he knew people there and he could trust their recommendations. He said you kind of changed West Virginia's recruiting approach during your time here to get West Virginia a little more involved in East Coast recruiting.
 
When you recruit Texas and other exotic places, there is always the risk of kids becoming homesick or becoming disgruntled with the climate here. Was that something you thought was important and needed to be changed while you were here? Did it just happen that way organically as you went along? How did it work out this way?
 
Sabins: It was out of need and desperation (laughs). I hadn't recruited anywhere and so you get dropped in a new land and you don't know anything. You don't know the difference between Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, California or Pennsylvania players. I had some ties in Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, and we brought some players from there, but it was more, 'If I don't build connections and relationships here quickly, we're not going to be able to do what we need to do.' I was 27 years old with way too much responsibility at the time and there was some fear in not having success. That's what drove it.
 
It was lots of calls, lots of hotel rooms and lots of nights on the road. I remember going to those large tournaments and just shaking hands and asking for cellphone numbers of every single coach that I met along the way. I was building a directory and then you are keeping up with coaches. You are sending Christmas cards and doing your best to learn everybody in the area, and it's been really rewarding now because over the nine years I've had a focus in this region, there has been so much turnover in the other programs that we've ended up being the program with the continuity and the same staff the longest. We've been able to maintain those relationships and recruit some of those players and then watch them grow within your program and have success. 
 
I need to give a lot of credit to (former assistant coach) Mark Ginther. When Mark got here, I was recruiting the East Coast, and he said that we have to dive deeper into Pennsylvania. We have to be there, even if we are going to get beat, they all have to have offers from us. They all have to know we are alive, basically. We made sure that was a priority and Mark played a big part in that.
 
Antonik: I recall you once telling me recruiting baseball players to West Virginia University was like taking a carpet-bombing approach to things. Get offers out there and just sort it out after getting all of the 'nos' until you finally get a 'yes.'
 
Sabins: Yes (laughs). It's changed now. We have to be a lot more conservative because we get more yeses than we've ever gotten. Early on, we were offering the best players in the country that were from our region, and there were a lot of schools, down south particularly, that were beating us. Then we built up our facilities, we won games and made regionals and all of a sudden some of those kids began telling us, 'Well, I'd like for my folks to see me  and not drive 10 hours to go watch me play.' 
 
And early on, the recruiting rules were much different. We could offer anybody at any age. There were a lot of eighth graders that had offers to West Virginia baseball (laughs). One of them was (LSU star and last year's No. 2 pick in the Major League Draft) Dylan Crews. Logan Sauve was an eighth grade offer, and at the time, people thought that we were a little bit wacky, and we probably were, but we knew if we wanted to make a jump on the national landscape, we had to do something different. We had to be aggressive. 
 
The rules have changed. We're still a little bit wacky, but we're trying to do it right and we're getting lots more yeses than nos.
 
Tomorrow, we will have part two of our exclusive conversation with new WVU baseball coach Steve Sabins.