Coastal89
October 11th, 2005, 09:28 PM
East Carolina suspended baseball coach Randy Mazey on Monday and indicated he has coached his last game for the Pirates.
The school said assistant Billy Godwin will serve as interim coach until a new coach is hired after the 2006 season. ECU did not indicate why Mazey was suspended.
Mazey, who had coached ECU the previous three seasons, will continue to be paid by the university, ECU athletics director Terry Holland said in the release.
"We will conduct a national search for a permanent coach at the conclusion of the 2006 season," Holland said in a statement.
Reached by telephone Monday night, senior Pirates pitcher Kevin Rhodes said Mazey broke the news to his team about 5 p.m. Mazey did not tell them specifically why he had been suspended, Rhodes said.
"Anybody who reads the newspapers knows as much about it as we do," Rhodes said. "He just said they had differences. ... It caught us off guard, big time."
In the statement, ECU chancellor Steve Ballard said he made the decision to suspend Mazey based on Holland's recommendation.
"These decisions are never easy," Ballard said in the statement. "But I have complete confidence in Terry Holland's assessment of the situation."
In July 2004, the East Carolina Board of Trustees extended Mazey's contract through June 30, 2008 and boosted his annual salary to $100,000. The move came after the Pirates won a school-record 51 games that spring and advanced to the NCAA Super Regional.
Mazey posted a 120-66-1 record in three seasons at ECU, including an 8-12 postseason mark that featured three NCAA Regional at-large berths. This spring, ECU finished fourth in Conference USA with an 18-12 record before ending the season with a pair of losses in the NCAA Tempe (Ariz.) Regional.
ECU hired Mazey following the 2002 season to replace Pirates coach Keith LeClair, who retired after he was stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Mazey previously had worked one season as an ECU assistant on LeClair's staff in 1998.
In the statement released by ECU, LeClair said he supported, "Dr. Ballard, Coach Holland and Nick Floyd's decisions as they continue to focus the program on our goal of winning the national championship."
"My heart and prayers go out to all of last season's coaches who are no longer with the program," LeClair said. "They are good friends and I appreciate everything they did to push our program forward."
A Clemson graduate, Mazey began his coaching career with the Tigers in 1990. In six years, his overall head coaching record -- which includes three years at Charleston Southern -- is 186-160-2.
The school said assistant Billy Godwin will serve as interim coach until a new coach is hired after the 2006 season. ECU did not indicate why Mazey was suspended.
Mazey, who had coached ECU the previous three seasons, will continue to be paid by the university, ECU athletics director Terry Holland said in the release.
"We will conduct a national search for a permanent coach at the conclusion of the 2006 season," Holland said in a statement.
Reached by telephone Monday night, senior Pirates pitcher Kevin Rhodes said Mazey broke the news to his team about 5 p.m. Mazey did not tell them specifically why he had been suspended, Rhodes said.
"Anybody who reads the newspapers knows as much about it as we do," Rhodes said. "He just said they had differences. ... It caught us off guard, big time."
In the statement, ECU chancellor Steve Ballard said he made the decision to suspend Mazey based on Holland's recommendation.
"These decisions are never easy," Ballard said in the statement. "But I have complete confidence in Terry Holland's assessment of the situation."
In July 2004, the East Carolina Board of Trustees extended Mazey's contract through June 30, 2008 and boosted his annual salary to $100,000. The move came after the Pirates won a school-record 51 games that spring and advanced to the NCAA Super Regional.
Mazey posted a 120-66-1 record in three seasons at ECU, including an 8-12 postseason mark that featured three NCAA Regional at-large berths. This spring, ECU finished fourth in Conference USA with an 18-12 record before ending the season with a pair of losses in the NCAA Tempe (Ariz.) Regional.
ECU hired Mazey following the 2002 season to replace Pirates coach Keith LeClair, who retired after he was stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Mazey previously had worked one season as an ECU assistant on LeClair's staff in 1998.
In the statement released by ECU, LeClair said he supported, "Dr. Ballard, Coach Holland and Nick Floyd's decisions as they continue to focus the program on our goal of winning the national championship."
"My heart and prayers go out to all of last season's coaches who are no longer with the program," LeClair said. "They are good friends and I appreciate everything they did to push our program forward."
A Clemson graduate, Mazey began his coaching career with the Tigers in 1990. In six years, his overall head coaching record -- which includes three years at Charleston Southern -- is 186-160-2.