Monte Lee willing to do it all to help Gamecocks get back to Omaha
When Monte Lee was fired from Clemson in May, he made a promise to himself. Wherever his next coaching opportunity came, he wanted it to be somewhere he could win.
And when Mark Kingston came calling, it was the opportunity Lee had been waiting for. With a rich baseball history, South Carolina was the perfect place to coach in his mind.
“I was just super excited about the opportunity. It happened very fast,” Lee said in his introductory press conference. “Just very grateful that (Kingston) called in and really wanted me to come and work for him and help him with the program. And it was an easy yes for me.”
As Lee joins the Gamecocks’ coaching staff, his main goal is to bring winning baseball back to Columbia.
“My job is to do the very best job I can for the University of South Carolina baseball program to recruit the best players I can to develop the players that we have here. And to help Mark Kingston and win a national championship,” Lee said. “That is my role. And I’m going to do everything I can to dominate that role. And put this program first, it is not about me, this is about the players. This is about the head coach and helping all of the people in the building succeed at a high level.”
From 2003-08, Lee served as an assistant coach under Ray Tanner at South Carolina. After being a head coach for the last 13 years, he was happy to come back in a similar role.
“Look, if you want to play at a national championship level, you have to be willing to sacrifice for the program, be selfless and dominate your role,” Lee said.
While Lee spent seven years with Clemson, he isn’t worried about his old rivalry with the Gamecocks.
“My focus is very simple right now and that is to help our players get better and get ready for fall practice and develop the type of winning culture that we need to compete at a high level,” Lee said.
On top of his duties as associate head coach, Lee will serve as the recruiting coordinator with the Gamecocks. He said it’s going to be an adjustment, but he’s excited about it.
“Love getting out on the road in finding talent and communicating with families and talking to people and again, just trying to maximize our roster,” Lee said. “I think we all know coaching is overrated. If you got really good players, you got to have good players if you want to be successful.”
Even though Lee will do whatever it takes to win, he knows it will mean nothing without hard work. At the same time, he believes being smart can go a long way.
“As a young head coach, I was very aggressive when it came to coaching and recruiting. And I think that over the course of time you learn what works and what doesn’t work for you individually. And you begin to learn how to work a little bit smarter,” Lee said. “So I would think that’s the main thing is being able to use 14 years of experience as a head coach and 22 years total, as a coach, that I can help a head coach when it comes to some of the decisions that he has to make in his chair because I’ve been in that chair.”
With his experience, Lee thinks he can help Kingston balance his workload next season.
“In this role as an assistant coach, recruiting coordinator, I don’t have to wear as many hats as the head coach. I can concentrate on developing the players here in recruiting,” Lee said. “So if there’s things that Mark needs me to do to take off his plate, I can do that because I have the experience of being a head coach.”
As fall practice approaches, the Gamecocks will focus on what they can control, something Lee will do as well. While he would love to be a head coach again someday, he understands the new role he signed up for.
“My job is to serve Mark Kingston, do the very best job I can to help him as a head coach. He’s the leader of this program. And that’s what I’m going to do,” Lee said. “I’m gonna do that as long as they’ll allow me to do it. And obviously, like anybody, you’re going to look at opportunities as they come about, but if they don’t that’s great. I’m gonna control what I can control and be the very best coach that I can be in the role that I am in.”
