An Unlikely Man with Profound Faith Brings Wildcats to Success

One word defines “greatness” in college baseball, Omaha, the site of the annual College World Series. For more than 120 years, Omaha had eluded the Kentucky baseball team.  Turns out all they needed was a coach with an aerospace degree and an utter dependence on God.

Coach Nick Mingione: I ended up going to Embry-Riddle to an aeronautical university where all I've ever wanted to do since I was 12-years-old was coach. I have a degree in Aerospace studies.

Will Dawson: So, you’re not an astronaut?

Mingione: No! (Laughs)

While playing baseball at Embry-Riddle in 1996, Nick Mingione gave his heart to Jesus.

“I went to church that day and it came time for the invitation. And I'll never forget, the pastor was like, ‘Hey, heads are bowed and eyes are closed,’ says Mingione. And he's like, ‘Hey, if you feel like you're lonely, you're tired of trying to please people,’ I'm a people pleaser, He's like, ‘you come right now.’ And he's like, ‘If you don't know for a fact, if you were to die today, you're going to heaven, you come right now.’ And that's when Romans 10:9 became the verse that really changed my life. ‘If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, you believe in your heart, God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.’ And, so that was in October of ‘96 and I'm not where I want to be, but thank God I'm not where I used to be.”

From 2002 to 2016, Mingione coached as an assistant at Florida Gulf Coast, Embry-Riddle, Kentucky, Western Carolina, and Mississippi State. In 2017, he received his first offer to be a head coach.

“I walk into John Cohen’s office one day and he's like, ‘Nick, close the door.’ And he's like, ‘I really think you're ready to be a head coach. I want you to be the head coach of Kentucky.’

In his first season as a head coach in Lexington in 2017, the Wildcats finished with one of the best records in school history,  just two games short of the College World Series. Coach Mingione was named conference and national coach of the year.

Dawson: It's a pretty incredible first year. You had to be thinking to yourself, why didn't I do this earlier? Yeah, it's pretty easy stuff, right?

Mingione: Yeah. Then that was that was part of my downfall as well. You know?
After winning the 2017 SEC coach of the year, Kentucky failed to make the NCAA tournament in five consecutive seasons. For a competitor like nick, losing began taking a toll.

Mingione: Boy, did I get humbled?

Dawson: Well the expectations were really high. Once you do that your first year I mean what comes next has to be the next step, right?

Mingione: Our culture had not gotten good. It had gotten bad. And it realized to me about the importance of culture being every day you got to work on your culture every day.

Dawson: To hear that you were in a bad place, that you were down and beaten down, what did it look like?

Mingione In 2022, I felt like we had built it back and we were like, ‘All right, this is the team.’ Well, our Friday starter goes down and shortly after our Saturday starter goes down and it's like as a coach, you're just, oh man, when your players get hurt, it crushes you. And to watch those players hurt and to watch our team and to watch us lose and I'm just like, ‘Golly, like, this was the team!’ And I was really in a in a dark place because I had felt so bad. We had worked so hard, and I was just trying everything I could to get the program to back where it needed to be for our players, for our staff, like just to have success. And I was beat down.
It was then, in 2023, Nick cried out to God.

“I was just I was like, ‘You know what? I'm done.’ Like, ‘I'm not doing this anymore.’ And I was just I really got on my hands and knees and it was like, ‘Lord, I'm, I'm done. Like I surrender, like I'm letting go of this. Like, you can have it. If you want me to be the coach here, I'll be the coach here. If you want me to go coach, do something else. I'll do whatever. Like it. But I'm done trying to do this on my own,’” says Mingione.

Nick made some changes, including moving out of the dugout to the third base coaching box. As a result, Kentucky had an incredible finish to 2023. They would play for a super-regional, just short of Omaha. Some friendly advice helped Nick put the true meaning of success into perspective. 

“He said, ‘Nick, what you’re chasing or what you're pursuing reveals what you love’. 
And I was chasing that trophy instead of chasing God. And he taught me this. He's like, ‘There are two glories that we could aim for. Man's glory, which equals bondage. Or you can chase after God's glory, which equals freedom.’  And I wanted to chase and aim after God's glory.”

The next season, in 2024, armed with a new perspective, coach Nick Mingione led Kentucky to their first ever College World Series in Omaha. In their first game, the Wildcats beat NC State with a walk-off home run.

“And I'm like Lord you're just showing off. Like you're just flexing your muscles,” said Mingione. 

“I was able to just coach with complete freedom. Like the battle's already won. He's already on his throne. It’s  not like some prosperity gospel deal. Like, you know, we finished fifth. Yeah, but we lost like, we didn't win it. But he was glorified. And that was the most important thing that God would be glorified through it all. That thing?(Points at College World Series Trophy) Who knows where that thing's going to be. That's going to be someone's basement one day. Who knows? But those people and those lives now, that's forever. Yeah, that is what I'm most proud of, is that God was able to glorify, and we were able to use that experience to advance and further his kingdom.”