Randy Mazey Explains the Decision to Retire After 2024 Season
Getting to go out on your own terms isn't something every coach gets the benefit of having.
West Virginia head baseball coach Randy Mazey will do so at the end of the 2024 season and turn things over to current assistant coach Steve Sabins as he moves into a senior advisor role within the program for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
It's a move that shocked a lot of people within the WVU fanbase considering the upward trajectory of the program and Mazey at 57 years young. But the skipper didn't want to coach his life away. He wants to be able to spend valuable time with his wife, Amanda, and his children, Weston and Sierra.
"This will be my 40th season of college baseball starting as a player in 1984. And in forty years of doing this, you miss a lot of family time, you miss your children growing up," Mazey said during an interview on the Mountaineer Insider Podcast with Tony Caridi. "And I didn't want to be that guy that only lives a couple years after his last game, you know? I want to live my life and spend time with my beautiful wife and Sierra and Weston.
"It wasn't an easy decision, but the two things that I know as I sit here right now...I know for sure that I acted in the best interest of West Virginia University and this baseball program. I sleep well at night knowing that I'm doing the best thing for the state, the community, and the university. And the second thing I know is that the staff that's in place with Coach Sabins, Coach Ginther, and [Coach] Garcia are the right people to keep elevating this thing. It has to be the right person here. And you have to know how to do it and those guys have been here long enough that they know how to do it. To hire somebody from the outside who doesn't know Morgantown and doesn't know how we play might not have gone well. This transition is going to be really smooth. I didn't hire Coach Sabins as my successor. Wren Baker did. And Wren Baker has been the best thing to happen to WVU baseball here in the last seven or eight years. He hired Coach Sabins after meeting with him and getting to know him and spend time with him and I think that's the exact right move because we've all seen what a terrible transition can do to a program here recently. And I wanted to make sure that if I did this that the transition was going to be really, really smooth and the program was going to stay at a level to make the people proud of it."
It's clear that Mazey feels he's making the right decision and to be able to have the comfort of knowing the program is in good hands when you walk away from it, that's the icing on the (retirement) cake.
In his 12 years in Morgantown, Mazey has accomplished a lot. Building a state of the art stadium, pumping guys into the pro level, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996, and most recently, capturing a Big 12 regular season title. But there's one last thing he wants to cross of his list before he walks away.
"I can't lie, it'd be really cool to go to Omaha in my last year. I pride myself on not being a selfish person, so I never care about how many wins I get. It's more about the kids and the community and the fans and the state. I want to make them proud. But if I could be selfish for just a second, I would love to take this program to Omaha in my last season. I think that would be a really cool way for me to limp off into the sunset, so to speak.
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