TribStar.com

September 22, 2007

ISU’s Meggs interviews for UC-Irvine opening
By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s an opportunity Indiana State baseball coach Lindsay Meggs couldn’t pass up. Not for his family, not for himself.

Meggs has interviewed for the vacant UC-Irvine head coaching job. He was in California on Tuesday after Irvine got permission from ISU to interview Meggs.

“At the time they called, I was knee-deep in the fall getting ready to get started, it caught me off guard,” said Meggs, who was at Warren Central watching his son Joe play football for Terre Haute North on Friday night. “It’s a prestigious job, not something I expected, I wanted to at least listen to what they had to say and that’s why I went out there.”

The Irvine coaching job became open when Dave Serrano took the Cal State-Fullerton head coaching job.

Meggs has coached at ISU, the Sycamores finished 26-26, but coached at Cal-State Chico for 13 years.

Meggs was 538-222-4 at Chico and won two NCAA Division II championships in eight playoff appearances.

Irvine was a College World Series participant this season, a Cinderella story considering the Anteater program was revived in 1992 after it had been eliminated 10 years earlier.

Meggs’ wife, Teresa, is a native of Tustin Meadows, Calif., just five miles from the Irvine campus, and her mother was the athletic secretary in the Irvine athletic department for many years. Proxmity to Teresa’s hometown also played a major role in Meggs’ interest.

If Meggs gets the job, it’s a feather in his cap. If he doesn’t, he feels like he has a good thing going with ISU and isn’t worried that his interest in the Irvine job will create doubt in his commitment to ISU.

“I told the team today before practice that all the conversations we have about relationships between coaches and players and players and their families is a balance. I have a responsibility to the team, and I take that seriously, but at the same time I have a responsibility to my family. When someone has the kind of resources [Irvine has], you owe it to your family to listen,” Meggs said. “I like the way these guys work, and even if I’m offered, it won’t be an easy decision for me. If it wasn’t where it is, I probably wouldn’t have even gone.”

According to an Orange County Register report, three other candidates have interviewed for the position.

Former Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico, who was released from the Volunteers earlier this season, had a 699-396 record with Tennessee.

Former USC coach Mike Gillespie, now managing the New York Mets’ New York-Penn League affiliate at Staten Island, had a record of 763-471-2 with the Trojans.

Current Cal State-Los Angeles coach Pat Shine also interviewed.

Meggs said he expects Irvine to offer the job to one of the candidates today and have a news conference on Monday.