GREENSBORO, N.C. – Former UNCG baseball head coach Mike Gaski has earned induction into the Guilford County Athletics Hall of Fame as part of its class of 2015. The induction reception and banquet will take place Sept. 21 at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Gaski began the UNCG baseball program in 1991 and led the team to a 657-540-1 record, three conference titles and two NCAA regional appearances over 22 seasons. He also earned Big South and Southern Conference Coach of the Year accolades four times.
Currently serving his fourth term as the president of USA Baseball, Gaski has worked on the International Baseball Federation's technical committee overseeing all international competition as was involved in the preparation for the 1992 Barcelona and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
During his tenure in Greensboro, Gaski coached over 25 players who were drafted or signed to contracts with major league organizations. He also coached four All-Americans, five Freshman All-Americans, three Freshman All-America honorable mention honorees and two Academic All-America selections.
Gaski guided the program during its transition from the Big South Conference to the Southern Conference in 1998. The Spartans won the SoCon regular season title with a then program-record 22 conference victories. After posting a 40-18 overall record, UNCG narrowly missed making its third NCAA appearance in five years.
In 1994, Gaski guided the Spartans to 39 wins, their first Big South Conference title and first trip to a NCAA regional. UNCG then produced its finest season in program history in 1997 as the Blue and Gold won a school record 45 games, captured the Big South regular season and tournament titles, made another NCAA regional appearance and finished the season ranked No. 28 nationally.
Though Gaski's administrative skills place him in high demand throughout the United States and abroad, he still continues to serve on numerous board of directors and advisory boards for local and statewide organizations – including the North Carolina Amateur Sports Association. Gaski was the long time director of UNCG's popular summer baseball camp and was asked to join the NCAA Baseball Academic Enhancement Working Group, a committee charged with addressing the concerns surrounding academic performance by baseball student-athletes and their correlation to the NCAA's APR standards. He also put in time as the amateur baseball advisor to the Major League Baseball Rules Committee.
Gaski earned a bachelor's degree in English from Detroit in 1973, a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from UNCG in 1977 and a Master of Arts in English from Ohio State in 1982. He began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant at Cleveland State in 1979 while also turning in assistant coaching stints at Ohio State and Florida Southern.
