He was not on the list.
Former South Carolina Baseball Assistant Coach Jim Toman
passed away today after a battle with brain cancer. He was 64 years old.
But, Jim Toman was more than what anyone and everyone could
ever describe.
He was one of one.
His contributions to the University of South Carolina’s
baseball program and the game of baseball itself will be passed on for
generations to come.
Former Head Baseball Coach and Athletics Director Ray Tanner
told me one time “I couldn’t have done it without him.”
“And I don’t know that I would have wanted to.”
Tanner was referencing Toman in a conversation we were
having upstairs at Founders Park not too long ago.
The conversation came about because I mentioned to Coach
Tanner when Toman was in town in 2025 for Tanner’s field naming ceremony, we
sat upstairs and watched the first game of the season together.
I had not seen Coach Toman in a couple of years and he made
me laugh for nine straight innings. Toman told every story under the sun.
Stories that can’t be retold. And not necessarily because they are
inappropriate, but because nobody can tell them like Toman.
But, one of the most amazing traits about Coach Toman was
his natural ability to evaluate every player on the field while coinciding as a
comedian.
I have never seen anything like it and I have been around
this game and some elite people in it almost my entire life.
Toman had a gift. He could see things nobody else saw while
simultaneously carrying the room in such a lighthearted manner. You just didn’t
expect it if you didn’t know “Storm.”
I referenced the fact I had not seen Toman in a couple of
years before that evening in the press box at Founders Park.
The “couple of years” was the 2023 Columbia Regional. We sat
and talked on the concourse on a hot June day. When I asked him why he was not
sitting upstairs with Coach Tanner in his suite, he responded with:
“I was. Coach Tanner got tired of me telling him what to do.
So I came downstairs.”
“The most important coach to ever wear the garnet and black”
Over the years, Coach Toman, Coach Tanner, College of
Charleston Head Coach Chad Holbrook, South Carolina Baseball Assistant Coach
Stuart Lake, former Interim Head Coach Monte Lee, and countless others have
joined us on Inside the Gamecocks- The Show.
All of them have told Jim Toman stories. Every one of them
are hilarious. Many of you have heard them. They are truly hilarious.
Toman referenced multiple times he blitzed on Coach Tanner
to go recruiting. One time, he got thrown out of a game while coaching third
base just to go recruit.
Well, he had also had enough of a terrible strike zone.
But, “The Big Guy” had a post game plan and that was to
leave Sarge Frye Field, get in his truck, get on the road, and go find some
players for next year’s team.
Tanner never blinked. If Toman said he could play, he could
play. He had no problem giving Coach Tanner his opinion on players. Good or
bad.
Former South Carolina baseball assistant Jim Toman dies
after cancer battle
Coach Tanner trusted him and let him work the way he wanted
to work.
“Jim Toman was three things. He was incredibly funny,
brutally honest, and a relentless recruiter,” former Assistant and Interim Head
Coach Monte Lee said.
Lee was the Hitting Coach, Baserunning Coach, and
Outfielders Coach for the Gamecocks from the fall of 2002 until the summer of
2008. Lee was also the Recruiting Coordinator in his final season after taking
over for Toman when he was named Head Coach at Liberty following the Gamecocks
2007 NCAA Super Regional in Chapel Hill.
I asked Lee what he learned about recruiting from Toman.
“To dominate the state and Florida JUCO’s first,” Lee
explained. “Physicality. Never sign a hitter who can’t turn around velo.”
The Gamecocks had plenty of all of those during that time.
“He (Toman) was the most important coach to ever wear the
garnet and black. Without him, the teams of the 2000’s don’t happen,” Lee
continued.
He may be right. Tanner has echoed similar words in years
past and as recently as his statement on Toman’s passing today.
“Even though you weren’t in the dugout when it happened, we
don’t win back to back National Championships without you,” Tanner stated in
the release.
Toman knew how to win at South Carolina
Coach Toman would tell anyone who asked that any team is
only as good as their players. Things were that simple to him.
So he made it his every day goal to find the very best
players he could find.
He didn’t get them all. As a matter of fact, he has rattled
of plenty to me personally that he missed on.
But, that was nowhere near how many he signed.
As Lee pointed out, Toman and Tanner knew what South
Carolina Baseball was capable of and they knew where to look for talent and why
it was important.
The term “JUCO Bandits” became popular in the Palmetto State
when Jim Toman arrived in the summer of 1996 with Coach Tanner. Toman would
scour the country, yes the country, for Junior College kids who could step in
and make a difference. High School players in South Carolina and Florida
“JUCO’s” were the priority. But, he could find the best anywhere.
They succeeded at enormous rates annually.
In 2002, first baseman Yaron Peters was a “JUCO” from
California. He hit .379 with 29 HR and 93 RBI. That is just one example. But,
it’s a big one. That team played for a National Championship.
But, the ticket was always the “why” once kids put the
Gamecocks uniform on. Players loved it here. Tanner was tough and Toman offset
that.
“He always truly believed we could win”
When star shortstop Drew Meyer hit campus in the fall of
1999, the South Carolina coaching staff could feel a turn.
Meyer was a second round draft pick out of Bishop England
High School in Charleston. He notably just turned down a pro deal after an in
home visit from Tommy Lasorda and the Los Angeles Dodgers and was set to enroll
in school.
But, back then, you had to physically walk into class in
order to officially signal you were off the Big League market.
So, Assistant Coach Stuart Lake stood outside of Meyer’s
very first collegiate classroom to make sure the crown jewel showed up and
didn’t have a last minute change of plans.
Meyer arrived, walked into class, and the wait was over.
“The Franchise,” they had nicknamed Meyer, had arrived. It was time to get to
work.
“That was a stressful morning,” Coach Lake told me laughing.
“It was kind of awkward just standing there, but that was my job. I guess I did
it well.”
I asked Toman about that moment a few years ago and I will
never forget his response.
“Stu did a great job that day. He was the bodyguard of the
Gamecocks, baby. But, he didn’t have these pythons.”
Clearly, Toman was being Toman, playful about one of his
best friends while referencing his own biceps.
That was “Storm.”
But, Drew Meyer’s arrival signified South Carolina’s own as
they began their march towards being the best program in college baseball for
over a decade.
“Rest in peace, Coach Toman,” Meyer texted today. “His
nickname may have been “Storm,” but he was a calming force in our dugout when
we needed him most.”
“No matter what we faced, he always believed we could win.”
Meyer like so many loved Toman and kept in touch with him at
every stop over the years.
“We felt that energy as players and it opened us up to play
free. He will be missed so much.”
Jim Toman “loved living his life” and “always had us
laughing”
When typing that statement, it hit me how heavy those words
are.
He truly loved living his life every day and, man, did he
love making people laugh. He was great at both.
And it never seemed to matter what got put in front of him.
Even brain cancer.
“Come on Stu (Stuart Lake), let’s go get a pie,” he yelled
towards Coach Lake in the press box a couple of years ago while trying to hurry
him up so they could go get dinner.
Lake was trying to finish up his postgame broadcast of
Carolina Baseball alongside the voice of the Gamecocks, Derek Scott.
Once it was over and Lake was ready to leave, Toman
continued on telling stories for a half an hour.
Lake shook his head and settled in for “story time” as he
called it.
Toman had found his rhythm and was in his element. Making
people laugh. That was “the big guy.”
Former South Carolina right handed pitcher Blake Cooper said
when he first got to campus, he knew Toman was in his corner.
“Hey Coop,” Toman shouted at him his first day on campus. “I
told you to get stronger, not fatter.”
“In that moment I knew I was right at home,” Cooper said. “I
didn’t know how serious he was, but I was ready to prove why he signed me I can
tell you that.”
Again, that was Toman. Poking fun, but pushing buttons.
“He was an incredible baseball coach, had an eye for talent,
knew how to build a roster, and had a unique ability to get the best out of his
players,” former first round draft pick and left handed pitcher Matt Campbell
told me.
“But that’s not what I’ll remember most,” Campbell said.
“I’ll remember ‘Storm’ and “the big guy.’ The coach who
always had us laughing, The guy who joked about his ‘pythons’ and made up
ridiculous nicknames and sayings to keep us loose. I’ll remember him jumping
into the middle of the huddle and throwing punches to fire us up. He had an
infectious personality and a larger than life presence that made every day at
the ballpark more enjoyable.”
Campbell continued, saying “His impact reached far beyond
baseball. He made people feel better just by being around him. That’s a gift
not many people have. I am so grateful I got to play for him and experience the
energy he brought every single day. He loved living his life. Rest easy, Coach.
You will be missed, but never forgotten.”
“I’ll always be a Gamecock”
Toman grew up in Pennsylvania and played college baseball
for Head Coach Sam Esposito at NC State. Ray Tanner was an assistant coach
during Toman’s playing days.
Toman then returned to Raleigh a few years after his playing
days were over and became Coach Tanner’s top assistant coach.
He followed Tanner to Columbia with the Gamecocks and the
rest, as we know, is really great history.
Toman loved the University of South Carolina. Even though he
departed after the 2007 season to become the Head Coach at Liberty and then at
Middle Tennessee State, with an assistant coaching stop in Charleston with Chad
Holbrook, he always missed Columbia and raved about his Gamecocks.
“I’ll always be a Gamecock baby, ride or die,” he said a few
years back on Inside the Gamecocks- The Show.
During Toman’s tenure in the Capital City, the voice of
Carolina Baseball was Mike Morgan. Morgan echoed Toman’s love for the
Gamecocks.
“He was so happy to have that job. I remember the Miami
Miracle in ’02, I’d never seen him happier. It hit me a couple of weeks ago
that he wasn’t going to make it. He was such a force. Just such a great dude,”
Morgan said.
“Storm had an unmatched sense of humor. No one recruited
better and no one made people laugh harder than Jim. I think of what he did to
help build Carolina Baseball and I honestly don’t know if all the Omaha’s and
title’s this century happen without him,” Morgan continued.
“He was a joy to be around. A great father and a great
friend. His spirit was one of a kind and he will be deeply missed.”
“He loved his family”
While most of the world knows “the big guy” for his wit and
baseball legacy, his family was always where his heart settled down.
Toman would talk for as long as you’d let him about his
three children Caroline, Charlie Mac, and Tucker, who he adored more than any
baseball achievement of his own.
Tucker is currently hitting .274 with 11 homeruns in the
Toronto Blue Jays organization, his best season of professional baseball.
Caroline has been Toman’s rock throughout his brain cancer
journey. Toman would say she “keeps me straight.”
In recent years, Coach Toman had taken up “thrifting” and
would travel near and far to find deals in thrift stores for his son, Charlie
Mac. You can follow Charlie Mac’s CMT Vintage on Instagram.
“Storm Picker. Yeah, that’s my new handle. I’m working on
being the top Storm Picker in the country,” Toman told ITG in 2025, relating it
to his baseball recruiting days.
That always stuck out to former South Carolina and current
College of Charleston Head Coach Chad Holbrook.
“It always stood out to me how much he loved coaching. How
much he loved the players and the game of baseball. But, boy did he love his
family. He loved his family.”
“Coach Toman lived an incredible life,” Holbrook said. “He
was a great man that impacted so many people. I am so lucky I was able to spend
a year in the dugout with him. He was special in so many ways. Jim Toman will
be deeply, deeply missed.”
Keep grinding, always believe, and proud
This is a tough day for the Toman family, the South Carolina
Baseball family, and all those who knew Jim Toman.
“He was a legend, he always will be,” former South Carolina
right hander and new Charleston Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Cisco added.
I asked former Gamecocks first baseman and big leaguer
Justin Smoak how Toman impacted him at Carolina.
“He just always told me to keep grinding. Just keep
grinding. You’re better than that guy,” Smoak said.
“There’s tough days in the SEC. In baseball. It’s hard. But,
he always found a way to make whatever it was you were going through easier. He
believed in us.”
If you go look at Jim Toman’s X profile, all of his posts
have multiple exclamation points behind each sentence, signifying his passion.
Many of his posts feature his kids, remember his parents,
reveal his love for baseball, and reference our nation’s veterans and military.
And what you will notice is what he used to often say in the
dugout in Columbia and elsewhere, he has publicly posted to his children over
and over again.
“Keep grinding!”
“I’m proud of you!”
“Always believe!!!”
For over a year, Jim Toman kept believing and kept grinding
with a brain cancer diagnosis.
He never quit. He never gave up.
Everyone is proud of you, Coach.
James Michael Andrew “Jim” Toman. November 28, 1961- August
4, 2026.
He was the head coach of the Liberty Flames from the 2008
season until 2016. Under Toman, Liberty has qualified for two NCAA tournaments.
He also served as the head coach of the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
(2019–2022). He passed away on August 4th, 2026 from brain cancer that he had
been battling since first having been diagnosed in 2025.
After graduating, Toman worked as a high school coach for
several years before starting his college coaching career in 1989 with a
one-year stint at FIU. From 1989 to 1991 he was the pitching coach of the
Brewster Whitecaps, a collegiate summer baseball team in the Cape Cod Baseball
League.
Biographical details
Born November 28,
1961 (age 64)
Monroeville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died August 4, 2026
Unknown as of August 4, 2026.
Education North
Carolina State University '85
Playing career
1981–1984 NC State
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1989 FIU (asst.)
1990–1996 NC State
(asst.)
1997–2007 South
Carolina (asst.)
2008–2016 Liberty
2017–2018 College
of Charleston (AHC)
2019–2022 Middle
Tennessee
Head coaching record
Overall 406–308–2
(.568)
Tournaments NCAA DI:
2–4
Big South: 20–13
C-USA: 1–4
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
Big South, North Division: 2014
Big South Tournament: 2013
Awards
Big South Coach of the Year: 2014
