Mike Current

Mike Current completed his seventh season with the South Carolina baseball program and his fifth as the Gamecocks’ director of player development. Current was an assistant coach his first two years in Columbia.

Current worked with the outfielders in 2018 and 2019, including Carlos Cortes, who had 15 home runs and 44 RBI and was drafted in the third round of the 2018 MLB First-Year Player Draft by the New York Mets, and TJ Hopkins, who was picked in the ninth round of the 2019 draft by Cincinnati. The Gamecocks hit .275 his first season and have hit 154 home runs his first two seasons in Columbia. The Carolina outfielders also combined for 15 assists in 2018, led by Cortes’ seven.

Current spent three seasons at USF with head coach Mark Kingston, serving as the team’s assistant coach, recruiting coordinator, hitting coach and working with the outfielders. From 2015-17, Current helped the Bulls make a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances.

In 2017, USF hit .287 as a team, with three players averaging over .330. Shortstop Kevin Merrell led the Bulls and The American Athletic Conference with a .383 average and, along with DH Luke Borders and outfielder Duke Stunkel Jr., earned all-conference honors. Merrell was selected 33rd overall in the MLB Amateur Draft by the Oakland Athletics, the third-highest drafted player in program history, and was named an All-American by four different publications.

During the 2016 season, the Bulls belted 36 home runs, the most for the team since 2010. USF also posted 66 stolen bases, giving the Bulls a two-year total of 140, the highest two-year stolen base total since 2002-03.

In Current’s first season at USF, the Bulls reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002 after hitting an AAC best .277 in conference play (a 40-point improvement over 2014). Shortstop Kyle Teaf earned NCAA Gainesville Regional All-Tournament honors and was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 30th round of the MLB Amateur Draft. Catcher Levi Borders earned first team All-AAC honors and second baseman Kevin Merrell was named a second-team Freshman All-American by the NCBWA. Current was also instrumental in helping the Bulls to a consensus top-10 recruiting class in the fall of 2015 (No. 5 by Perfect Game, No. 7 according to D1Baseball.com, No. 8 ranking by Baseball America and No. 9 from Collegiate Baseball), the program’s first ever top-25 recruiting class.

Current arrived at USF after playing a major role in the transformation of the Illinois State University program during a nine-year stint in Normal. Over his final five seasons, ISU racked up 173 wins and picked up a pair of Missouri Valley Conference regular season championships, an MVC tournament title and twice set the program’s record for wins. Illinois State hitters led the MVC in runs scored and OPS three times in his final four seasons, while 19 Redbird position players earned All-MVC honors and 10 were named first team all-conference, both were more than any other MVC team over that time period.

A total of 53 student-athletes earned All-MVC honors under Current, including Kevin Tokarski who became the first Redbird ever to win MVC Player of the Year honors in 2010. In all, Current has coached 57 players who have been drafted and nine of whom have reached the Major League level.

Current, who earned his master’s degree in sport management from Illinois State in May 2007, resides in Columbia with his wife, Heather, daughter, Evelyn and son, Cooper.