SLS 21RS-3079 ORIGINAL
2021 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 86
BY SENATOR FOIL
COMMENDATIONS. Commends LSU Baseball Coach Paul Mainieri on the occasion of
his retirement.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To commend and congratulate Coach Paul Mainieri on his extraordinary accomplishments
3 and achievements and for the distinction and honor he has brought to LSU and to
4 Louisiana on the occasion of his retirement as head coach of the LSU Baseball
5 Team.
6 WHEREAS, Paul Mainieri, who led the LSU Tigers to the 2009 national
7 championship, will retire at the end of the 2021 season at the NCAA Tournament; and
8 WHEREAS, he ranks first among active NCAA Division I coaches in career
9 victories, having posted a 1,501-774-8 (.659) career record and is No. 7 all-time among
10 NCAA Division I Baseball coaches in career wins; and
11 WHEREAS, his collegiate coaching career spans thirty-nine seasons, including six
12 seasons at St. Thomas College (1983-1988), six seasons at the Air Force Academy
13 (1989-1994), twelve seasons at Notre Dame University (1995-2006), and fifteen seasons at
14 LSU (2007-2021), encompassing the 2021 NCAA Tournament; and
15 WHEREAS, the sixty-three year-old Mainer is one of only five coaches in NCAA
16 Division I Baseball history to win 1,500 games and a national championship; and
17 WHEREAS, during his LSU tenure, the Tigers have captured thirty team
18 championships, including the 2009 NCAA title, eight NCAA Regional championships, five
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SLS 21RS-3079 ORIGINAL
1 College World Series appearances/NCAA Super Regional championships, four Southeastern
2 Conference championships, six SEC Tournament titles, and six SEC Western Division
3 crowns; and
4 WHEREAS, Coach Mainer's six SEC tournament titles tie him with former LSU
5 coach Skip Bertman and former Alabama coach Jim Wells for the most in league history;
6 and
7 WHEREAS, he is the second-winningest coach at LSU with a 637-282-3 (.693) mark
8 and has the third-highest career winning percentage in SEC history, trailing only Coach
9 Bertman who was 870-330-3 (.724) from 1984-2001 and former South Carolina coach Ray
10 Tanner who posted a 738-316 (.700) mark from 1997-2012; and
11 WHEREAS, under Mainer, the Tigers earned an NCAA Tournament Top 8 National
12 Seed in six consecutive seasons (2012-2017), making LSU and Stanford (1999-2004), the
13 only schools in NCAA history to capture six straight Top 8 National Seeds and, since 2008,
14 LSU has earned nine NCAA Tournament National Seeds, the second-best mark in the
15 country over the past thirteen seasons; and
16 WHEREAS, Mainer's LSU players have earned First-Team All-America recognition
17 on thirteen occasions and twenty of his former Tigers have played Major League Baseball,
18 including MLB All-Stars DJ LeMahieu, Alex Bregman, and Aaron Nola; and
19 WHEREAS, LSU players have been chosen in the MLB draft on eighty-eight
20 occasions during Coach Mainer's tenure, including a first-round selection in seven of the past
21 twelve seasons; and
22 WHEREAS, he served as the head coach of the United States Collegiate National
23 Team for its 2018 summer tour and led Team USA to a 12-3 record, including series
24 victories over Chinese Taipei, Japan, and Cuba; and
25 WHEREAS, his sincere commitment to everyday excellence was recognized on
26 January 3, 2014, in Dallas, Texas, when he was inducted into the American Baseball
27 Coaches Association Hall of Fame; and
28 WHEREAS, Coach Mainieri, a four-time National Coach of the Year, joined in the
29 Hall of Fame his father, Demie Mainieri, who coached Miami-Dade North Community
30 College to 1,012 wins and a national title in his thirty-year career and Demie and Paul
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SLS 21RS-3079 ORIGINAL
1 Mainieri are the only father-son combination in the American Baseball Coaches Association
2 Hall of Fame; and
3 WHEREAS, Paul Mainieri was born on August 29, 1957, in Morgantown, West
4 Virginia, raised in Miami, Florida, attended LSU where he earned a letter in 1976 as a
5 freshman outfielder and where he also met his future wife, Karen, then a Fighting Tiger
6 cheerleader, attained a bachelor's degree in physical education from Florida International in
7 1980, and earned a master's degree in sports administration from St. Thomas, Florida, in
8 1982; and
9 WHEREAS, he is married to the former Karen Fejes and they have four children,
10 Nicholas, Alexandra, Samantha, and Thomas and four grandchildren, Holden, Jonathan,
11 Wren, and Rocco; and
12 WHEREAS, he played one season for his father at Miami-Dade North Community
13 College and two seasons at the University of New Orleans, where as a second baseman, he
14 helped the Privateers win two Sun Belt Conference titles and advance to the 1979 NCAA
15 Tournament; and
16 WHEREAS, Paul Mainieri entered the coaching profession at his alma mater,
17 Columbus High School in Miami, where he worked as assistant baseball coach and assistant
18 football coach, and where he was inducted into the Columbus High Sports Hall of Fame in
19 2009; and
20 WHEREAS his collegiate coaching career began in 1983 at St. Thomas University
21 and in March 2013, the university named its new baseball facility in honor of Mainieri, who
22 also worked as the school's director of athletics for three years and was recognized as the
23 1984 Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year; and
24 WHEREAS, Paul Mainieri was the first civilian baseball coach at the United States
25 Air Force Academy and four of his players went on to attain the rank of general in the armed
26 forces and one of his former players, retired Major Mike Kazlausky, is now the head coach
27 at the academy; and
28 WHEREAS, at Notre Dame University he directed the Irish to fourteen different
29 team titles, including a 2002 NCAA Super Regional championship and a berth in the College
30 World Series; sixty of his players signed professional contracts, and eight of them reached
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SLS 21RS-3079 ORIGINAL
1 the Major Leagues; and
2 WHEREAS, while at Notre Dame University, he was the 2001, 2002, and 2006
3 ABCA Mideast Region Coach of the Year, 2001 Big East Coach of the Year, 2000 National
4 Coach of the Year (College Baseball Insider) and his teams appeared in nine NCAA
5 tournaments in twelve seasons, had forty-plus win seasons in eleven times, appeared in the
6 2002 College World Series, 2002 NCAA Regional and Super Regional Championship, won
7 five Conference Tournament Championships, and seven Conference Regular Season
8 Championships; and
9 WHEREAS, Paul Mainieri was hired as LSU's coach in June 2006 and just three
10 years later, led the 2009 Tigers to the College World Series title, posting a 56-17 overall
11 record, including a 10-1 mark in NCAA Tournament competition; and
12 WHEREAS, while at LSU, he has been the recipient of 2018 USA Baseball Rod
13 Dedeaux, 2017 Stan Musial Award, 2015 National Coach of the Year (College Baseball
14 Foundation, NCBWA), 2014 Inductee into the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame,
15 2009 National Coach of the Year (ABCA, Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball,
16 Rivals.com), 2008 National Coach of the Year (Rivals.com, College Baseball Insider), 2015
17 and 2009 SEC Coach of the Year, and five-time Louisiana Sportswriters Association Coach
18 of the Year; and
19 WHEREAS, Paul Mainieri's emphasis upon academic achievement has been
20 illustrated by the Tigers' performance in the classroom, as one hundred three LSU baseball
21 players have earned their degrees during his tenure with twenty-five of the graduates being
22 players who signed professional contracts before completing their college eligibility and who
23 returned to LSU to finish their degree requirements; and
24 WHEREAS, in addition, LSU players have received SEC Academic Honor Roll
25 recognition on one hundred forty-one occasions; and
26 WHEREAS, Paul Mainieri has made an immeasurable impact not only at LSU, but
27 across college baseball and as stated by LSU athletic director Scott Woodward, "Every day
28 he has taken the field, he has honored the game he loves with his class, his character, and his
29 commitment to excellence. We are forever grateful for the championships he has won, the
30 student athletes he has inspired, and memories he has gifted our fans over 15 seasons."
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SLS 21RS-3079 ORIGINAL
1 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
2 commend Paul Mainieri upon his retirement as head coach of the LSU baseball team and
3 does hereby express to him the enduring appreciation for his extraordinary leadership of
4 LSU's baseball program and for the honor and distinction he has brought to LSU, to Baton
5 Rouge, and to Louisiana.
6 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
7 Coach Paul Mainieri.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Jerry J. Guillot.
DIGEST
SCR 86 Original 2021 Regular Session Foil
Commends Coach Paul Maineri upon his retirement as head coach of the LSU baseball team.
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