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Baseball:
Mike Gillespie, in his third year as the UC Irvine Baseball head coach, boasts 22 years of Division I coaching experience and it has paid dividends for the Anteaters. In his second season at the helm of the program, Gillespie led the Anteaters into uncharted territory as UCI was named the consensus No. 1 team in the nation and was awarded a No. 6 national seed in the NCAA postseason. Claiming its fourth consecutive NCAA berth, UC Irvine served as a regional host for the first time in the program's history.
The Anteaters also won their first-ever Big West Conference title, winning the crown with a 22-2 mark and posting the Big West's second-highest win percentage at .916. The Anteaters were a perfect 12-0 at home in conference action and recorded their third straight 40-win season. The team finished at 45-15 and amassed the second-highest number of victories since becoming a Division I program in 1977-78. UCI set a new program record with 122 doubles and erased a 37-year old mark with 394 RBI. At the conclusion of the season, a school-record ten Anteaters were honored on the Big West All-Conference teams, including the Big West Pitcher and Player of the Year and Gillespie was voted the conference Coach of the Year, his fifth such honor. Thirteen All-America honors were awarded to the Anteaters last year and Ben Orloff was named the Brooks Wallace Award recipient, honoring as the top shortstop in the nation.
Gillespie, who took over the reins of the UC Irvine Baseball program in 2007, continues to add to his storied career. Due to be inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in January 2010, the veteran skipper is ranked in the top 25 in victories among active coaches at the Division I level with an 850-504-2 (.627) career mark.
Gillespie's coaching fame includes a 20-year career at USC, where he guided the Trojans to 15 postseason appearances, four College World Series appearances (1995, 1998, 2000 and 2001) and a national title in 1998 for which Gillespie was named National Coach of the Year by Collegiate Baseball and the American Baseball Coaches Association.
Gillespie posted a 763-471-2 (.618) record during his tenure at USC, producing 28 major league players, including five who were voted to the All-Star Game in 2003 (Mark Prior, Barry Zito, Aaron Boone, Bret Boone and Geoff Jenkins).
His reign at USC began in 1987 and in just his second season, guided the Trojans to the West Regional, falling just one game shy of the College World Series. USC made four consecutive regional appearances, including winning the conference title in 1991. From 1993, Gillespie led USC to an impressive 10 consecutive postseason appearances that included back-to-back College World Series appearances in 2000 and 2001, marking the first time USC accomplished the feat since 1973 and 1974.
His teams won five Pacific-10 titles, garnered Pac-10 Coach of the Year honors four times (1991, 1995, 1996, 2002) and West Region Coach of the Year accolades twice (1996 and 1998) by the American Baseball Coaches Association.
In 2002, Gillespie directed his talents to the USA Baseball National Team, leading the team to a 27-3-1 record and posting the highest winning percentage (.900) in history until the mark was surpassed by the 2003 team. The national team reeled off a 21-game unbeaten streak at the end of the season, including the Haarlem Honkbal Week championship in the Netherlands where Team USA captured the crown with an 8-5 win against Cuba. For his efforts, Gillespie was nominated by the United States Olympic Committee as the baseball Coach of the Year. It was his second stint with USA Baseball, having served as an assistant coach with the 1997 USA team.
He is only one of two men (Arizona's Jerry Kindall) to both play for and coach an NCAA-championship baseball team. He was the left-fielder for USC's 1961 national-championship squad and coached the 1998 team to the program's 12th title.
Prior to coaching at USC, Gillespie coached at the College of the Canyons, where he built the program from scratch. In his 16 seasons at Canyons, Gillespie compiled a 418-165 (.717) record and won 11 Mountain Valley Conference championships, including six consecutive from 1981-86. He captured three state titles and finished as the California runner-up twice. His teams finished with 20 or more wins in 13 years of his tenure, posting 30-plus wins six times. His final squad won 41 games in 1986, the most-ever by a California community college at that time. His term included three California Community College Co-Coach of the Year awards.
Gillespie served as Canyon's athletic director from 1977-86 and taught English, physical education and health education. He earned his bachelor's (1962) and master's (1963) degrees from USC.
Gillespie and his wife, Barbara, have four children, Kelly, Mitch, Matt and Tiffany and have three grandchildren, Cade, Cole and Samantha. |
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