Coastal Carolina University won its first NCAA Division I championship June 30 when the Chanticleers defeated Arizona 4-3 in Game 3 of the College World Series finals in Omaha, Neb.
Coastal Carolina (55-18) became the first team since Minnesota in 1956 to win the CWS championship in its debut.
Catcher David Parrett, third baseman Zach Remillard, outfielder Anthony Marks and (CWS Most Outstanding Player) pitcher Andrew Beckwith earned All-Tournament Team honors at the College World Series to power the Chanticleers to the coveted championship.
Few might realize, however, the CCU baseball program was shaped by an Oak Park native.
John Vrooman was a longtime former baseball coach, as well as interim athletic director, academic dean and history professor at Coastal Carolina.
Under Vrooman’s guidance, Coastal Carolina baseball won six consecutive Big South Conference titles and achieved the school’s first NCAA regional appearance in 1991 (just four years after becoming a Division I program).
He’s in the school’s athletic hall of fame and CCU’s beautiful new baseball field is named after him.
If you ever get down to Myrtle Beach, S.C., check out a baseball game on campus. You’ll surely be impressed, but you’ll also have no idea how far Vrooman brought the program from its early roots.
John was the main reason I chose to enroll and play baseball at Coastal Carolina. I filled in as the team’s closer from 1997-2000 under coach Gary Gilmore who took over when Vrooman retired.
Gilmore won NCAA Coach of the Year this year before leading the Chanticleers to the national championship. In 27 years, Gilmore amassed a 1,100-540 record, including a 847-438 mark in 21 seasons at CCU.
Both Vrooman and myself (along with my dad and brother) played baseball under legendary Oak Park and River Forest High School coach Jack Kaiser.
Baseball was what brought us together then and now. And both John and I myself cite Oak Park’s youth baseball program and coaches for shaping our knowledge and love of the game.
It seemed nobody had heard of Coastal Carolina baseball at the time I was there (my sister once wondered if our mascot was the “Chandeliers” rather than the Chanticleers), when it had only 5,000 students.
But it was already a team with a strong record of baseball success. Vrooman was the reason Coastal Carolina started to schedule (and beat) top programs like Clemson, North Carolina and North Carolina State.
Coastal Carolina even was awarded a No. 4 seed nationally in 2010, hosting a regional and super regional.
Making the World Series, however, remained an elusive goal until this year. Nobody seemed to even consider a national championship was possible, and yet it happened.
“They believed they could get it done,” said Vrooman, back home in Myrtle Beach. “This team is all about community, friendships, commitments to one another and commitments to the staff.
“They might not have had the most talent in the nation, but we saw they could be the very best team in the nation.”
Vrooman and I were both especially proud that Coastal Carolina was awarded for having the highest GPA (grade point average) of any of the eight teams in the College World Series this year.
When I walked down the streets of Omaha with my family and John over to the CWS games, we were regularly stopped in our teal CCU jerseys by locals and visitors alike, wishing Coastal Carolina luck in the tournament.
 It was clear we were the underdog, the “Cinderella team.”
And, of course, a few people also wondered, what is a Chanticleer?
A Chanticleer is defined as a rooster, used particularly in fables and fairy tales.
While understanding of the mascot will likely remain limited, the baseball program likely will never be classified as “underdogs” again.
