New contract approved for South Carolina’s Mark Kingston. Here are the details
South Carolina has extended head baseball coach Mark Kingston’s contract.
The USC’s board of trustees approved a two-year extension for Kingston on Friday afternoon. With the extension, Kingston’s contract will run through the 2027 season, and he’ll make $725,000 per year, which is a raise over the $600,000 annual compensation he made under his previous contract.
Hired before the 2018 season, Kingston is coming off a 42-21 season with the Gamecocks — his best record at USC. Led by Jack Mahoney, Cole Messina and Ethan Petry, the Gamecocks ranked as high as No. 2 nationally this season, hosted a regional in Columbia as the No. 16 national seed and advanced to a super regional against Florida in Gainesville.
In his six years at the helm, Kingston, 53, has compiled a 180-130 record (58.1% winning percentage) and has led the Gamecocks to three NCAA regional appearances and two super regionals.
South Carolina also had five players selected in the 2023 MLB Draft this summer, led by pitchers Jack Mahoney (third round to the Colorado Rockies) and Will Sanders (fifth round to the Chicago Cubs). In Kingston’s six years as a head coach, USC has 34 total MLB Draft picks.
“if you just go back to the season and the way we played for the majority of the season until we had to endure some injuries, it was an Omaha-caliber team,” athletic director Ray Tanner said Friday. “He put together a great squad. There’s a handful of teams in the country that would say they had an Omaha-caliber team that didn’t make it, but I think that’s ultimately what you want to do in a program in the SEC, or anywhere else
“And he had that and hopefully, he’ll put together another good team this year.”
“I am excited to advance forward with Gamecock student athletes that I appreciate so much,” Kingston said in the school’s release. “I love coaching baseball here and the support we get from our great fan base. Thank you to the Board of Trustees, President (Michael) Amiridis and Coach Tanner.”
Kingston’s buyouts will not reset with the new contract. The university would owe him $800,000 if it were to terminate his contract before May 31, 2024. The total drops to $400,000 in 2025, then $300,000 then 2026, then $200,000 in 2027.
There were rumblings of a possible coaching change after the injury-marred 2022 season, when the Gamecocks suffered their first losing season since 1996. But Kingston tapped the transfer portal and spearheaded a massive turnaround for USC, which got off to the team’s best start since 1975 and ranked as high as No. 3 in the country.
Kingston was last extended in 2021, with the Gamecocks signing him through the 2025 season and maintaining his $600,000 per year salary. At the time, Tanner said he thought it was important for coaches to have four years under contract “to be effective” on the recruiting trail. Friday’s extension ensures that Kingston will be under contract for a full recruiting cycle.
If Kingston were to leave for another job before his contract runs out, he’d owe the Gamecocks a $200,000 buyout in 2024, $100,000 in both 2025 and 2026 and $0 in 2027, according to his new deal.
This story was originally published August 18, 2023 at 3:24 PM with the headline "New contract approved for South Carolina’s Mark Kingston. Here are the details."
