Kingston's staff still 'to be determined'

There’s a new era of South Carolina baseball as Mark Kingston was announced as the program’s fifth coach since 1970. Now, he’ll take on the task of recruiting, which he said he’ll start “ASAP,” and building his staff.

It’s not clear which direction he’ll go with that, with some of his staff from South Florida in the running to fill his vacant position.

The team’s pitching coach, Bill Mohl, who was a candidate to follow Kingston to Columbia accepted the USF position Friday night. Kingston said in his introductory press conference his cohort is still “to be determined.”

“I have a great staff there. They’re so good that they’re being considered for one of them to be promoted as the head coach,” Kingston said. “We need a little time for that to play out but once that happens, I’ll be able to start putting the staff together.”

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If Mohl doesn’t take the Bulls job, he could likely wind up in Columbia.

There are two paid positions on each collegiate coaching staff, usually reserved for a pitching coach and assistant/recruiting coordinator.

Jerry Meyers, the Gamecocks pitching coach last season, served as the team’s interim head coach before Kingston was hired and Sammy Esposito handle the recruiting coordinator job under Chad Holbrook.

Holbrook also had a volunteer assistant in Brian Buscher, who was fired midseason and Stuart Lake, who served in an administrative role before Buscher was fired.

Kingston will now have to fill likely all of those spots on his new staff with new hires. The coaches currently at South Carolina—Meyers, Esposito and Lake—all have had conversations with Kingston, who said the three would be candidates for his staff if space allows.

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GamecockCentral.com has been told the current staff is looking at other options outside of South Carolina.

Esposito, who was recruiting coordinator for the last five seasons, had a hand in every player on South Carolina’s roster while Meyers worked extensively with the pitching staff in two stints at South Carolina.

Jonah Bride, who was at Kingston’s press conference with teammate Madison Stokes, said he’s excited to see what the new head coach has to offer, including whatever staff choices he makes.

A staff should likely be in place sooner than later, with major recruiting tournaments being held this summer.

“[I'm] Just going to embrace whatever coach has in his plan,” Bride said. “He’s coming in and he knows what he’s doing. You put your trust him. Whatever happens to coach Meyers, Espo or Lake, those guys, it’ll be just fine.”