College of the Canyons assistant baseball coach Len Mohney took to the podium and spoke about the late great coach Mike Gillespie.
“I once heard a person dies twice,” Mohney said in his speech on Saturday. “Once when they pass and once when they stopped talking about them. Well let me tell you, Mike Gillespie’s stories will live on forever. His friends, coaches and players, and there have been so many over the years. They’ll tell their stories to others, who will then pass those stories along.”
Gillespie, known as “Skip,” was memorialized on Saturday at COC on the very field where he built up his three state championship and 11 conference title teams in 16 seasons.
The Cougars’ baseball field was named in the late coach’s honor and a plaque was unveiled that will reside in the Canyons dugout.
Gillespie earned all-CIF honors in basketball, football and baseball, but chose the diamond at USC despite a scholarship to play football as well.
Former COC basketball coach Lee Smelser, who was also honored this year on the now “Lee Smelser Court,” was actually the man who pushed Gillespie to apply for the job at Canyons. The two were coaches at rival high schools as Smelser coached at Morningside, while Gillespie coached at Rolling Hills.
Gillespie built the Canyons program from scratch and within 16 years he was at the helm of a powerhouse. Gillespie led the Cougars to five state championship appearances in a six-year span from 1981 to 1986, his final season at COC.
The skipper finished his career at Canyons with 420 wins and with a win percentage over 70%, but he never turned his back on the program he built.
Gillespie moved on to coach at USC for 20 years and at UC Irvine for another 10 seasons. Gillespie won four PAC-10 championships as well as a national title with the Trojans 1998, but he constantly checked in with how things were going at Canyons.
Mohney was one of three keynote speakers, including current Cougars baseball coach Chris Cota, who was on the 1986 state championship team.
“I had the honor to play for Mike in ’85 and ’86 and I have to say during that time is where I really learned to play baseball,” Cota said in his speech. “Mike was a huge influence on my life, not only as a person and coach but he was a great friend. I know for me and almost everyone who played for Mike, there was a proudness. People ask me where I played college baseball and I say, ‘I played at College of the Canyons for Mike Gillespie.’”
Tom Gamboa, a former baseball scout, also spoke at the event and was introduced as “probably Mike’s best friend.”
Gamboa came to COC years ago just to watch a fall practice, unaware he was about to make a lifelong friend.
“I sat behind home plate right there and watched the full practice and I was so impressed with the structure and the intensity of a fall workout, that I knew I had to meet the guy afterwards,” Gamboa said in his speech. “So I waited ’til everybody, all the players, were gone. I came down and introduced myself, and that started a 44-year friendship.”
Gamboa shared stories of the late coach, who would do anything for his friends and could never get enough baseball.
“His whole life was about his friends and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for you,” Gamboa said. “And thirdly, was his passion for baseball. I tried for 44 years to get him into golf, or fishing or tennis, but he didn’t want to have any hobbies. He’d watch a Little League game at the World Series in Pennsylvania as opposed to doing something outside hobby wise.”
Closing out the day on the microphone was Gillespie’s son Mitch.
“He’s in many Halls of Fame, but his biggest claim to fame was he starred in ‘Moneyball’ with Brad Pitt, one scene,” Mitch said.
Mike would go on to win a College World Series title in 1998 and won a combined 1,156 games between his time with USC and UCI. He’s a member of California Community College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame and the USC Athletic Hall of Fame.
COC baseball took the field after the ceremony and brought in a 6-4 win on the first official game on Mike Gillespie Field. Nine Cougars registered hits, including Hunter Essang, who hit the first home run at Mike Gillespie Field.
With everything his former coach has accomplished, Cota believes Gillespie would view COC renaming its field as the top honor he received.
“He’s received numerous accolades throughout his coaching career,” Cota said. “Hall of Fame, coach of the year awards, National Coach of the Year awards, but I think that this would be at the top of his list, renaming this field after him. It’s going to be great to come out every day now and to see that sign above the scoreboard and really understand who put this school, College of the Canyons, on the baseball map of community college level.”
