After more than a week of interviews and talking to nearly a half dozen candidates, Clemson will name College of Charleston coach Monte Lee as the next coach to lead the storied Tiger baseball program on Thursday.
Lee is a native of Spartanburg and worked as an assistant at Spartanburg Methodist and South Carolina before serving as the College of Charleston head coach and ultimately accepting the top job at Clemson.
In December of 2012, Lee was named one of Baseball America’s Top 10 Head Coaches Under 40 in all of college baseball. He was also named to Perfect Game’s Top 10 Rising Head Coaches list. In 2014, he reached his 200th career win at College of Charleston, becoming the fastest CofC coach to reach that milestone. In 2015, he was named the Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year after leading the Cougars to a regular season title in their second season as members.
Lee joined the Cougars after spending the six seasons as an assistant at South Carolina under head coach Ray Tanner. He served as the Gamecocks’ recruiting coordinator in his last season.
In his seven seasons at CofC, Lee has booked four trips to the NCAA Tournament, including back-to-back Regional finals appearances in 2014-15. In 2015, the Cougars beat Auburn twice to advance to the championship round of the NCAA Tallahassee Regional, and CofC championed the 2014 Gainesville Regional and earned a trip to the 2014 Lubbock Super Regional. He led Charleston to a CAA regular season title in 2015, CAA Tournament championship in 2014, and a Southern Conference regular season championship in 2012. His career winning percentage of .656 currently ranks in the top 20 among all active NCAA Division I coaches.
He has coached four conference Players of the Year, two conference Pitchers of the Year and two conference Freshmen of the Year. In his tenure, 24 different players have been drafted or signed free agent contracts. He has coached 14 All-Americans, including National Freshman of the Year Daniel Aldrich, Academic All-America First Teamer Matt Leeds, the 2012 Tom Walter College Baseball Inspiration Award winner Marty Gantt and 2014 NCBWA Freshman Pitcher of the Year Bailey Ober.
Since the inception of the BBCOR bats in 2011, the Cougars rank third in the nation in total home runs (297). Over the last four seasons, CofC has also led its conference in staff ERA, setting a new program record with a 2.73 ERA in 2014.
In 2015, CofC earned at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament to advance through the NCAA Tallahassee Regional, ultimately falling in the championship game to Regional host and one-seed Florida State. The Cougars spent the final six weeks of the season ranked in all five polls recognized by the NCAA, climbing as high as No. 13, CofC’s highest ranking since the 2006 season.
Lee was named CAA Coach of the Year, joining Pitcher of the Year Taylor Clarke and Player of the Year/Defensive Player of the Year Blake Butler.
Despite opening 2014 with over 70 percent of innings departed from the year prior, College of Charleston went on to post a banner season with the program’s best pitching and defense ever displayed en route to a CAA Tournament championship, a three-game sweep through the NCAA Gainesville Regional and a trip to the Lubbock Super Regional, just the second super regional appearance in program history.
College of Charleston opened the season with a series victory over then-no. 12 North Carolina and then used the dominant performances of a redshirt-sophomore and two freshmen on the weekend rotation to a 44-19 season. CofC swept the CAA Tournament by holding William & Mary, the nation’s third-best offense, to just five runs in two games. The Cougars then defeated the NCAA Tournament’s number two overall seed in Florida in the first game of the Gainesville Regional en route to the first-ever regional sweep by a four seed in NCAA Tournament history. Charleston suffered two heartbreaking 1-0 losses at No. 10 Texas Tech in the super regional round as Taylor Clarke and Bailey Ober allowed just one run apiece to the Big 12’s best offense.
Ober finished the season with a 10-3 record and a 1.52 ERA, third-best all-time at CofC and tops among NCAA freshmen. He was awarded the NCBWA Freshman Pitcher of the Year award and named a Freshman All-American. Gunnar Heidt led the team in hitting and was drafted in the 13th round by the Toronto Blue Jays.
College of Charleston overcame injuries in 2013 to finish with a 31-26 record and place second in the Southern Conference. It marked the fourth time that the Cougars placed third or higher in Lee’s five years at the helm as the Cougars have won 30 games in every season dating back to 2001. Freshman Carl Wise came on strong at the end of the season to earn NCBWA Freshman All-America honors, while senior Jake Zokan was selected in the ninth round of the MLB Draft, the eighth year with a top 10 draft selection in 11 seasons.
Lee is expected to officially be name the head coach of the Clemson baseball team at a press conference on Thursday. He’s just the third person to take over the Clemson baseball program since 1958.
