Paul Mainieri is the oldest head coach South Carolina has hired to coach one of the “Big Four” sports in the SEC era.
The 66-year-old Mainieri was officially introduced as leader of the Gamecocks baseball team Thursday afternoon, and before answering questions about his age or the health history that led him to retire from baseball three years ago, Mainieri brought up the topic himself during a news conference held in the Cockerbooth Club at Williams-Brice Stadium.
The National Baseball Coaches Hall of Famer assured the crowd, which included family members, USC athletic staff, several members of the baseball team and local media: “Sixty-six? It's just a number.”
“I don't feel old at all, 66,” Mainieri said in his opening remarks. “I feel like I'm 40 again. I'm just so excited to be here and do this job.”
South Carolina baseball's new leader acknowledged he never would have imagined a week ago that an “inaugural press conference” would be scheduled for June 13. Neither could anyone else. But athletic director Ray Tanner reminded Mainieri, a former SEC rival and longtime friend, of his talent for recruiting. And with encouragement from Karen, his wife of 44 years, Mainieri decided to take the job.
Mainieri told The Advocate this week that he won't be in South Carolina for “20 years,” but that “if I'm healthy, I'll be able to retire when I want to.” He has a five-year contract with the Gamecocks that pays him $1.3 million a year.
But Tanner said, “I'm not going to limit myself to five points. I want more.”
By comparison, Lou Holtz was 61 when the university hired him as its football coach in 1998. Steve Spurrier was 59 when South Carolina hired him to replace Holtz in 2004.
Mainieri will turn 67 on Aug. 29, just before the Gamecocks begin fall practice, and he said Thursday that South Carolina will be the final stop in his coaching career.
“I don't know how much longer I'll be coaching,” he said. “Hopefully I'll be doing well enough that (assistant coach) Monte (Lee) will be ready to take over when I leave.”
South Carolina on Tuesday approved a three-year, $550,000 annual contract with Lee, making him the highest-paid assistant in the country. The raise doubled his salary.
In 2021, Mainieri announced his intention to retire from coaching after 15 years at Louisiana State University, five College World Series appearances (2008, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017) and a national championship (2009). The reason was health issues. Mainieri, then 63, had suffered from neck pain for years and required a variety of taxing treatments, including steroid injections, spinal injections, radiofrequency ablation (to burn nerve endings), spinal fusion surgery and surgery to “insert an artificial disc” in his neck/spine.
According to The Advocate, Mainelli also suffered from chronic headaches and hoped that the lack of stress associated with leading college baseball's top team would ease his neck pain and headaches.
Mainieri said Thursday that he has taken the time since his retirement to address those issues and that the pain has lessened over the years.
But Mainieri couldn't stay away from baseball for long, and within a year of retiring, he interviewed for other potential college baseball jobs. In 2022, he spoke with Notre Dame, where he coached from 1995-2006, but ultimately confessed he “didn't feel ready” to return to baseball. He then interviewed for the head coaching position at his hometown University of Miami in 2023. The Hurricanes ended up promoting pitching coach J.D. Arteaga instead.
After retiring, Mainieri worked as a “special advisor to the baseball coach” at Baton Rouge Community College and as a special advisor to the athletic department at Louisiana State University before accepting Tanner's offer to take the USC head coaching position.
Mainieri said his wife, Karen, urged him to accept Tanner's offer because she knew something was missing in his life. Health issues prevented him from leaving LSU of his own accord, and he had to pause six times at his farewell news conference to compose himself.
But there were no tears to be found in Columbia on Thursday, just a spry 66-year-old man in a gray pinstripe suit, garnet and black tie, smiling and eager to make his triumphant return to the diamond.
