The Ray Tanner Story

South Carolina baseball coach Ray Tanner is about one thing: winning. His pedigree on the baseball diamond in Columbia speaks for itself.

The numbers don’t lie when it comes to Tanner. Entering his 14th season at the helm of Gamecock baseball, Tanner has collected 580 victories in the garnet and black and has led USC to 10 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, seven Super Regional appearances and three appearances in the College World Series.

But the buck doesn’t stop there for Tanner. He’s captured two Southeastern Conference Championships, one SEC Tournament Championship and a National Championship appearance during his time in Columbia. His .686 winning percentage is the third-highest in SEC history. During the last decade, 19 Gamecocks have been featured on the All-America list. Only three other teams in college baseball have won more games over the last decade than South Carolina.

But Tanner’s impressive résumé doesn’t end there. While Gamecock fans may love Tanner for his accomplishments on the diamond, his tenure at South Carolina goes far beyond wins and losses. 

Tanner’s extraordinary impact on the players and assistant coaches that have come and gone through USC is a tale that can’t simply be summed up through trophies, All-America honors and championship appearances.

It can only be summed up through the words of those that have experienced firsthand Tanner’s coaching and life philosophy.

This is their story.

-Let ‘em play, let ‘em coach-

Ray Tanner has worked with some experienced guys during his time as a player and coach. A three-sport star in high school, Tanner’s athletic abilities earned him a baseball scholarship at North Carolina State, where he played under the legendary Sam Esposito. There, he was able to take away the philosophies he still uses to this day.

“I think we’re all a product of our environment. We’re all a product of our relationships and associations in years past,” Tanner said. “That’s sort of the formulation of what I acquired over those years and experiences. You have different coaching styles and different philosophies, but at the end of the day I think you have to surround yourself with good people.”

While Tanner certainly surrounded himself with talented players and assistant coaches, his philosophy of letting players play and coaches coach has enabled his program to reach unprecedented heights.

“The thing that I loved so much about working for Ray, from day one, was Ray let his assistant coaches work,” former assistant coach Monte Lee said, who now is the head coach at College of Charleston. “He doesn’t feel like he has to make all the decisions. He really delegates his responsibilities.”

Tanner’s ability to allow his coaches to make decisions on their own has been helpful for each of them — as five former assistants are now head coaches.

“I think as smart as he is, he understood that if he let myself and the others coach, as a whole we were going to be more productive and accomplish more,” former pitching coach Jerry Meyers said. “It’s hard to do everything yourself, and you have to have good people around you.”

Meyers, now the coach at Old Dominion, believes Tanner’s ability to listen to the people around him has proven to be one of his greatest assets.

That may never have been truer for Kip Bouknight, who was struggling as a freshman — and struggling bad.

As fall practice concluded, Bouknight entered Tanner’s office for the traditional wrap-up interview, where each player would discuss with Tanner where they currently stood on the team.

So when Bouknight approached, he wrote on a piece of paper that he believed he had done enough to earn a spot as a midweek starter.

Tanner looked down at the piece of paper, looked back at Bouknight, and released stinging words.

“He looked at it and said, ‘Bouknight, you’re crazy,’” he recalled. “And I said, ‘what do you mean?’ And he said, ‘look where you wrote yourself. Your fall sucked.’”

Bouknight, whose fall earned run average was 22.22, was hurting. But he wasn’t going to give in just yet.

“I said, ‘I understand that, coach Tanner. But I’ll be your best pitcher on this team.’ And he looked at me, and boy I’m telling you, it got heated,” Bouknight said.

But the words, however harsh they may have been, pushed Bouknight to work harder. He made the travel roster and then picked up two wins in relief against Tennessee. The next Friday night, he started against No. 3 Alabama.

He never relinquished his ace spot.

“For me to sit here and tell you that I knew it was all going to work out, I can’t tell you that. But it did in his case,” Tanner said. “He had adversity, he grew from it. It was one of those deals where you give up or you bat down the hatches and move forward. And he obviously had a great career after that.”

Great career was an understatement. Bouknight became USC’s all-time leader in wins (45) and went 17-1 in his final season in the garnet and black. That season, he was named the Louisville Slugger Player of the Year, Rawling Player of the Year, SEC Player of the Year and an All-American.

“He’s a player’s coach. If you believe in something and you want to say it to him, his door is always open,” said Bouknight, who’s now retiring. “You may not get the answer back from him that you want to get, but you certainly are able to speak your mind if you want to.”