Monte Wesley Lee (born February 9, 1977) is an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

coach, who is the current associate head baseball coach and recruiting coordinator for the

South Carolina Gamecocks The South Carolina Gamecocks represent the University of South Carolina in the NCAA Division I. The University of South Carolina uses "Gamecocks" as its official nickname and mascot. While the men's teams were traditionally known as the Fighti ...

. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

for the Charleston Cougars from 1996 to 1999. He then served as the head coach of the

College of Charleston Cougars The Charleston Cougars are the varsity intercollegiate athletic teams representing the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. The Cougars compete in NCAA Division I and are currently members of the Colonial Athletic Association. T ...

(2009–2015) and the

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) s ...

(2016–2022). Under Lee, the Cougars reached four NCAA Tournaments, including one NCAA Super Regional.

Playing career

Lee played four seasons of baseball (1996–1999) at

College of Charleston The College of Charleston (CofC or Charleston) is a public university in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, it is the oldest university in South Carolina, the 13th oldest institution of higher learning in the Unit ...

. An outfielder, Lee was a career .333 hitter and had 22

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s. He became the program's fifth major-league draftee when he was selected by the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

following his senior year and played two seasons of minor league baseball, advancing as high as

Single-A Class A, also known as Single-A and sometimes as Low-A, is the fourth-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States, below Triple-A, Double-A, and High-A. There are 30 teams classified at the Single-A level, one for each ...

Coaching career

Lee began his coaching career with a two-year stint (2001–2002) as an assistant at Spartanburg Methodist, a junior college located in his hometown of

Spartanburg, South Carolina Spartanburg is a city in and the seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city of Spartanburg has a municipal population of 38,732 as of the 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest city in the state. For a time, the Off ...

. During Lee's tenure, the program reached an

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

Division I World Series and set a single-season win record. Lee then spent six seasons (2003–2008) as an assistant at

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. The Gamecocks qualified for the NCAA tournament in each of Lee's six seasons and also appeared in two

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

College of Charleston

Lee was hired as the head coach at

prior to the start of the 2009 season. In Lee's second season, the Cougars broke the 40-win mark and appeared in their first NCAA Tournament in his tenure. At the Myrtle Beach Regional, the Cougars advanced to the regional final with wins over third-seeded

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...

and first-seeded

Coastal Carolina Coastal Carolina University (CCU or Coastal) is a public university in Conway, South Carolina. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, it became an in ...

, but were eliminated with consecutive defeats by Coastal in the championship round. In

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, the team shared the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly k ...

regular season title and advanced to another NCAA Tournament, where it went 1–2. In

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, Charleston won the conference tournament in their first season in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Cougars then won the Gainesville Regional with a 3–0 record, defeating host

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and Long Beach State twice. In the Lubbock Super Regional, the Cougars were defeated by

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

in consecutive 1–0 games. In 2015 season, the Cougars won the CAA regular season crown with a 21–3 record, before falling to the UNCW Seahawks in the CAA Championship game. Charleston was selected as a #2 seed in

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

's Tallahassee Regional, where they went 2–2, finishing second behind the host Seminoles. In Lee's seven seasons at Charleston, 21 players were selected in the

Major League Baseball Draft The first-year player draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lo ...

. Pitcher Heath Hembree was taken in the 5th round by the

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in 2010 and reached the major leagues in

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. A total of six Cougars were taken in that draft, the highest total of Lee's tenure. In his final season at Charleston, the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The ...

selected pitcher Taylor Clarke in the third round, making him the program's highest ever selection.

Clemson

On June 18, 2015, Clemson hired Lee to be their 28th head coach in program history; Lee became only the third head coach at Clemson since 1958 (taking over a program that ranked 8th all-time in Division I wins at the time of his hire). Monte Lee guided the 2016 Tigers to an ACC baseball tournament title in his first season, defeating the defending ACC Champion Florida State Seminoles in a marathon game by a score of 18–13 at the

Durham Bulls Athletic Park Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP, pronounced "d-bap") is a 10,000-seat ballpark in Durham, North Carolina that is home to the Durham Bulls, the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball. It is also home to the Duke Blue ...

Durham, NC Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 Census, Durham is the 4th-m ...

. The win produced the program's first conference title in ten years and Lee's first Clemson team captured the program's 10th conference tournament title and 15th overall ACC championship - both league records. Lee also became the third consecutive Clemson head coach to win the ACC in his first season, joining

Bill Wilhelm Billy Wilhelm (June 11, 1929 – December 24, 2010) was an American college baseball coach who was the head coach of the Clemson Tigers from 1958 to 1993. In his 36 seasons as head coach, Wilhelm had a record of 1,161–536–10. Before coming ...

(1958) and

Jack Leggett Jack Leggett (born March 5, 1954) is a retired American head college baseball coach. He was recently the head coach of the Clemson Tigers from 1994 to 2015. Under Leggett, the Tigers reached the College World Series six times. As of the end of ...

(1994). The Tigers' 44 victories in 2016 are the second-most victories by a first-year head coach in Clemson history. A strong finish to the season propelled the Tigers to their 41st appearance and the #7 overall national seed to the NCAA tournament. In

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, Lee earned his 500th career victory. The Tigers defeated

on March 29 to give Lee the victory. At the end of the season Lee was fired as head coach after failing to make the NCAA tournament. It was the second consecutive season that Clemson did not qualify for the tournament.

Return to South Carolina

On August 18, 2022, Lee returned to South Carolina as the team's associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.

Head coaching record

The following is a table of Lee's yearly records as a collegiate head baseball coach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Monte 1977 births Living people Clemson Tigers baseball coaches Charleston Cougars baseball coaches Charleston Cougars baseball players South Carolina Gamecocks baseball coaches People from Spartanburg, South Carolina Baseball coaches from South Carolina People from Lugoff, South Carolina