USC hires former big leaguer Andy Stankiewicz as baseball coach
For the next reset for the proud but struggling USC baseball program, the Trojans have turned to a former Major League player and college coach with more than a decade of experience and success.
Andy Stankiewicz, who has spent the last 11 seasons as the head coach at Grand Canyon University, was announced Sunday as the Trojans' new coach, replacing Jason Gill, who was fired after three middling seasons.
The 57-year-old Stankiewicz, who played seven seasons in MLB with the New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Montreal Expos and Arizona Diamondbacks, was named the Western Athletic Conference's coach of the year each of the last two seasons and four times overall since 2017 while leading the Antelopes to regular-season conference championships in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022 and the program's first two NCAA tournament appearances the last two seasons.
"We are excited to welcome Andy Stankiewicz to the Trojan Family as our new baseball head coach," USC athletic director Mike Bohn said in a statement. "A former MLB player and talented coach, Andy has a proven record of success in building a winning program. Playing seven seasons in the MLB, he understands what it takes to compete at the highest level. Andy's leadership, relationship-building abilities and player development make him a terrific fit to lead our program. Furthermore, his integrity and commitment to student-athletes align perfectly with our vision and guiding principles.
"He arrives at USC strongly recommended and respected by members of the baseball community, and we have the utmost confidence that he will elevate our baseball program back to national prominence."
The USC baseball program has won more national championships -- 12 -- than any other in the country, but the last of those came in 1998 under Mike Gillespie, who succeeded Trojans legend Rod Dedeaux. Since Gillespie's tenure ended in 2006, USC has gone through four coaches with just two winning seasons (plus Gill's 10-5 mark during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign). The Trojans' lone NCAA regionals appearance in the last 17 seasons came in 2015.
USC went 60-59 over three seasons with Gill, including a 25-28 record this year, and continued to remain outside the national spotlight, now having made the NCAA tournament just once in the last 17 years (there was no tournament in 2020 due to the pandemic).
Now, Stankiewicz gets his chance to try and restore the program to its former heights.
"I am thrilled to be the next head coach of the most prestigious baseball program in the country, the University of Southern California," Stankiewicz said in a statement. "I want to thank Mike Bohn and (sport administrator) Lindsay Jaffe for entrusting me with the development of our young men to be champions on and off the field. Our program will be one that represents the Trojan Family well and makes our alumni proud. Fight On!"
Stankiewicz has a career-record of 341-239-2 (.588) at Grand Canyon, which was a Division II program his first two seasons there in 2012-13 before transitioning to Div. 1.
Grand Canyon won 41 games this past season, finishing the regular season with three consecutive weeks in the D1Baseball.com Top-25 poll, won a second-consecutive WAC title and earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history and the first time by a WAC school since 2012. GCU had one of the nation's strongest nonconference schedules and recorded victories over top-10 teams in Oregon State, Stanford and Texas Tech.
In his time at Grand Canyon, Stankiewicz has had 21 players selected in the MLB Draft, with six selections coming in the first 10 rounds.
Prior to his time at Grand Canyon, Stankiewicz held the position of minor league field coordinator for the Seattle Mariners. Before his stint with the Mariners, he was a member of the Arizona State baseball coaching staff from 2007 to 2009, helping the Sun Devils to three Pac-10 championships and two appearances in the College World Series.
Stankiewicz also brings a professional coaching background, having served as manager for the New York Yankees NY-Penn League team in Staten Island. He guided Staten Island to the NY-Penn League championship in 2005.
He played his college ball at Pepperdine before his big league career, and is a Southern California native, who was born Inglewood and attended St. Paul HS in Santa Fe Springs.
USC's official news release included the following quotes:
"Andy Stankiewcz is the right person for the job. He has been a winner at every level, is a tremendous teacher of the game, has demonstrated his ability to recruit talented players with high character, and is a great leader who possesses the highest level of integrity. His resume of success as a college player, Major League player, minor league manager, college coach, and Team USA manager has shown he can win at all levels and develop talent on and off the field. USC couldn't have gotten a better baseball coach to lead the program to consistent greatness, and I look forward to seeing his results."
-Damon Oppenheimer, New York Yankees VP of Domestic Scouting
"The connection between USA Baseball and USC baseball goes back decades, beginning with Olympic and collegiate coaching legend Rod Dedeaux. In the years since Rod managed the 1984 Olympic team in Los Angeles, many Trojans, both players and coaches, have worn the red, white and blue and represented the United States on the world stage. That tradition continues with the naming of Andy Stankiewicz as the next head coach for the USC baseball program. We may be biased, but one would be hard-pressed to find a better teacher, coach and leader of young men in a baseball program, than Andy. It may be the collegiate baseball off-season, but USC just got a win. A very big win. Fight On!"
-Paul Seiler, Executive Director / CEO USA Baseball
