May 1, 2025
Then-WVU head caoch Randy Mazey, pictured during last season’s Super Regionals.
MORGANTOWN — Randy Mazey was getting ready for a Wednesday trip to Charleston, another leg on his journey through retirement. His former team, West Virginia’s Mountaineers, were about to play their instate rival, Marshall, and he was slated to make the first pitch.
This retirement stuff hasn’t been so bad for the man who put WVU baseball back on the national map.
“I probably couldn’t have written a better script about how all this is supposed to go,” he said.
Retirement, the book says, is a time of leisure; a time to do all those things you had missed because you were busy working. It was supposed to be a life change, but it hasn’t been boring, that is for sure.
“I’ve actually been busier since I retired than I was before I retired,” he said with a soft laugh.
He’s delved into family life as he never was able to before while basking in the warmth of the glow his former baseball team has been emitting under new coach Steve Sabins, his former assistant for nine years and hand-picked successor.
“It’s been amazing. It’s been amazing to see how good the team is; how good Coach Sabins is doing. I’ve got to see my kids play at all their baseball games and all their hockey games,” Mazey said.
Just the other night, he attended his son Weston’s Senior Night game for Morgantown High and like everyone else, Mazey was wondering what ever happened to that cute little bat boy he had been back in 2013 when he became WVU’s coach.
“Time flies, man. You never know how you are going to feel when that time comes but it’s pretty emotional to see your son do something for the last time,” Mazey said of the experience.
There was that and there was daughter, Sierra, undergoing her baptism, something of equal importance,
“You know, if I was still coaching the Mountaineers there’s a lot of stuff this year that I would have missed,” Mazey admitted. “I got to see my kids play in the national hockey tournament; see my son win the championship in hockey and the OVAC championship in baseball.
“I got to see my daughter get baptized this past Sunday,” he went on.
His daughter Sierra’s baptism had always been on hold until she felt she was ready for it and that time came this past Sunday.
“She did it on her own,” Mazey said. “She has grown up to be a very mature young woman and has made decisions on her own. That’s what parenting is all about, preparing for those days. I’ve been very happy to be able to be in attendance for all of them.”
The two worlds have merged, both the baseball and the family life coming to fruition, at just the right time in Mazey’s life so that he can enjoy both his professional and life accomplishments.
Think about the baseball side of it and what this year has been about.
As it ended, Mazey’s former player JJ Wetherholt became the seventh player taken in the Major League Baseball Draft as an All-American. He was picked by the St. Louis Cardinals, went to the big-league spring training camp, has launched a professional career that everyone expects to end up with a successful major league player.
The success that Wetherholt is having is just another step in the line of talent that Mazey produced across the 11 years he coached the Mountaineers.
“You know, that 2019 team that hosted a Regional, four pitchers from that team made the major leagues,” Mazey pointed out. “Think of that. It’s amazing.”
It certainly is something they can take pride in themselves — Alec Manoah, John Means, Kade Strowd and Jackson Wolf.
But to Mazey, this was more than just for them or, for that matter, for him.
“I’ve always said I wanted to take the Mountaineers to the College World Series, not for my benefit but for the benefit of the players and coaches and fans in the state,” Mazey said. “It was all about them experiencing that, so if they do that this year and I’m not on the coaching staff, that’s equally as satisfying for me.
“I’ve always wanted it for everyone else, so I don’t have to be involved for me to feel great about it. If they do something this year and I can get to see my kids experience what they have experienced in high school, that’s the perfect storm for me.”
Now he is enjoying watching what Sabins is doing after he put together a 372-274 record at WVU, going 109-66 the last three years while coaching them to a Super Regional.
“I knew what he would do,” Mazey said. “I spent nine years with Coach Sabins. He was the right guy for the job. I made that known to everyone who was willing to listen, that he was the guy that was going to continue to build this program in the right direction and that sure has happened as we sit here today.”
Could Mazey have envisioned this 12 years ago when he came to West Virginia? He says it is exactly what he had envisioned.
“This is what we all imagined when we first got here,” Mazey said. “The goal for this program was to be what Oregon State was in the Pac 12. They were one of the northernmost teams in a really good conference that stretched north to south. They won back-to-back national championships (in 2006 and 2007). They dominated a really good league.
“I told people all along that we were Oregon State; just 10 or 15 years later,” Mazey went on. “I really believe West Virginia now has a program that is sustainable at this level and I really believe we will have as much success as Oregon State did when they were in the Pac 12 doing their thing.”
While Mazey certainly appreciates what this means for himself and his family, he sees it as something bigger.
“I’m really happy for the people in this state,” he said. “They have wanted good baseball for a long time. They’ve got it now and it’s a great product, something they can be proud of. I imagine that game tonight in Charleston is going to be really packed with fans.”
The truth is, it isn’t just because this is an in-state battle, but it is driven by the amazing year the Mountaineers are having. They are in first place in the Big 12, looking to host a regional, owning a 14-game win streak within the conference and having had both a 13- and 14-game winning streak during the same season.
They own the best road record in the country, with only two losses, and there has been nothing but magic around the season they are producing.
And the Kendrick Family Ballpark has become an athletic structure that, on a smaller scale, equals Mountaineer Field and the Coliseum.
It wasn’t built when Mazey agreed to come to WVU from TCU, where he had been the pitching coach.
“Oliver Luck is a great recruiter,” Mazey said of the man who hired him, the former Mountaineer quarterback who was athletic director for the move to the Big 12. “He told me we were getting into a great league and were going to build a great stadium, but there had to be a few strings pulled for it to happen because we were raising money through a TIFF and it had to be approved at the state level.
“That was a little bit hairy, going through that process,” Mazey said. “There was a time when we thought it might not happen, but it happened and that was the first piece of the puzzle. We built a stadium I think everyone is proud of, a great place to watch a game and right now it’s hard to find a seat.”
The truth is the final two home weekends are said to be sold out.
“It seems amazing, how far this program has come,” Mazey said. “Twelve years ago, when you are looking at it on the front end, you get impatient and want it to happen right now and right now and right now. But you look back on it and the timing was probably right. It wasn’t going to happen overnight.”
Mazey doesn’t ask for credit.
“It took a lot of people, from that original coaching staff and those original players, “Mazey said. “You know my first year, I literally stumbled onto a really good team. We had Ryan McBroom, Billy Fleming and Bobby Boyd, guys from the previous regime.”,
Mazey lays credit with all who have taken part in the journey.
“Everyone who has been here, coaches and players and staff, not just me,” he said. “It literally took a village. It’s been 500 to 1,000 people who have been involved in this turnaround and it is sustainable and appears that West Virginia baseball will be really, really good for a really, really long time.”
He has time for it all now, but best will be seeing his son, Weston, whom they call Wammer, playing as a Mountaineer starting next season.
“That’s the biggest cherry on top,” Mazey said.
If it goes the way Mazey lays it out in his head, the next stop is seeing his son playing in Omaha in the College World Series.
“Can you imagine this state if West Virginia goes to the College World Series?” he said. “How many people from West Virginia would go out there and experience that? That’s just fun to think about. You might as well close the state then. There won’t be anyone left here.”
Mazey truly wishes that for his son, who overcame a horrible head injury to play again and be where he is today.
“My son, he gets it,” Mazey said. “He understands this program and how much it means to the people of this state and there’s not going to be anyone who will be more proud to wear that West Virginia uniform that he is because he’s heard me say it not only to reporters but around the dinner table at night, that this is a special place with special people.
“I couldn’t be happier for him and Coach Sabins and the staff are the guys who are going to develop him. He’s a tough kid and he’s determined to be a good player here, I have faith in him.”
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