Mazey to coach one more year, turn job over to assistant Sabins
MORGANTOWN — Randy Mazey, who lifted West Virginia University baseball into the national conversation and to heights it had never before seen, will make the 2024 season the final one in his career with the job going to his top assistant, Steve Sabins, in 2025.
“I am not stepping down, I am stepping aside after the 2024 season to let Coach Sabins, Coach Ginther, and Coach Garcia continue to take WVU Baseball to levels it has never reached before,” Mazey said as he and the school made the announcement.
“I am 100% confident that Coach Sabins and this staff have the ability to do just that, and I am just as excited for the future of Mountaineer baseball now as I have ever been.”
Mazey, 57, has coached at WVU for 11 years, being brought in by then athletic director Oliver Luck as the Mountaineers moved from the Big East to the Big 12 with the idea of moving into a new stadium, Mon County Ballpark, in the middle of the 2015 season, which gave the program a new enthusiasm which went from players to fans to recruits.
Under Mazey’s direction, the team reached new heights which included 40 victories this season despite a late-season swoon. The Mountaineers climbed from nowhere to No. 6 in the country at its highest level and seemed to be a victory away from hosting an NCAA Regional before being swept at Texas, undergoing a quick exit from the Big 12 Tournament.
The inner workings of the unusual nature of this passing of the torch from Mazey to Sabins is an attempt to assure a smooth and workable transition. After so many botched resignations, firings and hirings in the athletic department in recent years, including the recent Bob Huggins debacle, athletic director Wren Baker wanted to assure continuity.
However, earlier this year, Sabins was offered the head baseball coaching job at Cincinnati and was ready to take it when this process was worked out to keep him here, where he was familiar with the administration, the team and would be able to smoothly slide into the new role.
Sabins has been Mazey’s chief assistant for the last eight years and the staff will remain intact.
Sabins has signed a contract that runs through the 2029 season. Mazey signed a new three-year contract and will continue on as an advisor for two years after leaving the dugout.
“As Coach Mazey and I sat down after the season to evaluate and discuss the future of Mountaineer baseball, it became quite evident that he loves this program and wants it to flourish well after the conclusion of his career,” Baker said. “We discussed what a successful transition would look like and quickly came to the conclusion that Steve Sabins was the right person to lead our baseball team and strengthen our future.
“Coach Sabins has been an integral part of the program’s success and has been involved in all aspects of its operation. He has been by Coach Mazey’s side for eight successful years and as we solidify the future of Mountaineer baseball, continuity is the strength and key that will keep our program at the top of the Big 12.”
“I want to thank Coach Mazey for building a winner and a conference champion here in Morgantown,” Baker added. “From what he inherited, with virtually no major college baseball facility, to the program he has built, Mountaineer Nation should be very proud of his achievements. I will certainly be there and looking forward to his final season leading the Mountaineers.”
“I love WVU Baseball, and I am very proud of what we have accomplished in my time here,” Mazey said in the release. “Amanda, Weston, Sierra and I have fallen in love with Morgantown, the people here, the fans, and the entire state of West Virginia. This is our home, and I will continue to help this baseball program within the community and the state to the best of my ability.
“However, since next season will be my last on the field, I do ask our great fans for their continued support to help make it our best season yet.”
Mazey’s accomplishments after replacing Greg Van Zant are head-spinning, especially in a conference with such a rich baseball history and such storied programs as Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and TCU.
Under Mazey, the Mountaineers have gone 336-250 while making NCAA Regional appearances in 2017, 2019 and 2023, the first appearances for West Virginia in a regional since 1996. The 2019 regional was also the first to take place in Morgantown since 1955.
It peaked last year as Mazey’s Mountaineers shared their first Big 12 championship. They had not won a conference title since taking the Big East championship of 1996, 27 years ago.
Mazey was selected Big 12 Coach of the Year this season.
This year’s team was led by second baseman JJ Wetherholt, a finalist for the NCAA’s Player of the Year Award while he became the school’s first unanimous All-American.
In all, Mazey produced 14 All-Americans, including right-handed pitcher Alek Manoah, who was taken with the 11th overall pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2019 MLB draft, equaling the top pick in WVU history.
Three players played at the major league level this year — Manoah, an All-Star with the Blue Jays last season; John Means, who owns a major league no-hitter for the Baltimore Orioles and Michael Grove, a starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Sabins joined the Mountaineer coaching staff in 2016 as an assistant coach before being elevated to Associate Head Coach ahead of the 2022 season. He has helped bring the West Virginia program to new heights as the Mountaineers have won 248 games and made three NCAA Regionals in the eight years Sabins has been in Morgantown.
Also serving as recruiting coordinator since 2018, the Mountaineers have consistently had top-40 recruiting classes ranked by Perfect Game, including top-25 classes in both 2021 and 2022. He also has a keen eye for finding unheralded recruits, most notably Wetherholt, who was the 32nd-ranked player in Pennsylvania in 2021 as well as just the 225th-ranked second baseman in the country.
“Eight years ago, Coach Mazey took a risk on me and hired the youngest Power 5 assistant in the country. I was unproven with no direct ties to West Virginia,” Sabins said in the school’s release. “I will forever be grateful for the opportunity he gave me and my family.
“I’ve worked hard every day since to prove him right and make WVU proud. Tabitha and I have poured our energy into this community, and welcomed two children, Charlee and Tucker, and Morgantown has become home.”