Paul Mainieri begins his first season as the Special Advisor to the Head Baseball Coach at Baton Rouge Community College.

Spanning 15 seasons (2007-2021), the Paul Mainieri Era at LSU was distinguished by tremendous success in all facets of the Fighting Tiger baseball program.

Mainieri guided the Tigers to the 2009 College World Series national championship and five CWS appearances. During Mainieri’s tenure, LSU captured a remarkable 31 team championships, including the 2009 NCAA title, nine NCAA Regional championships, five NCAA Super Regional championships, four Southeastern Conference championships, six SEC Tournament titles and six SEC Western Division crowns.

In 11 of his 14 full seasons at LSU - the 2020 season was canceled after only 17 games due to COVID-19 - Mainieri led the Tigers to at least one team championship. Mainieri posted a 1,505-777-8 (.659) record in 39 seasons of collegiate coaching at St. Thomas University (1984-88), Air Force (1989-94), Notre Dame (1995-2006) and LSU (2007-21). He completed his career No. 1 on the all-time wins list for active NCAA coaches. Mainieri is No. 7 in all-time NCAA Division I Baseball wins, and he is one of only five Division I coaches in NCAA history to have won over 1,500 games and a national championship.

He finished his career with a total of 46 team championships - 31 at LSU and 15 at Notre Dame. As head coach at Notre Dame from 1995- 2006, Mainieri directed the Irish to an NCAA Super Regional title and an NCAA Regional championship, eight regular-season conference championships and five league tournament titles.

Mainieri recorded a 641-285-3 (.692) mark at LSU, and he has the third-highest winning percentage in SEC history, trailing only former LSU coach Skip Bertman, who was 870-330-3 (.724) from 1984-2001, and former South Carolina coach Ray Tanner, who posted a 738-316 (.700) mark from 1997-2012. Under Mainieri, the Tigers earned an NCAA Tournament National Seed in six consecutive seasons (2012-17), making LSU and Stanford (1999- 2004) the only schools in NCAA history to capture six straight National Seeds. Beginning in 2008, LSU earned nine NCAA Tournament National Seeds, the second-best mark in the country over the past 14 full seasons.

Mainieri’s LSU players earned First-Team All-America recognition on 13 occasions, and 25 of his former Tigers have played Major League Baseball. LSU players were chosen in the MLB Draft on 90 occasions during Mainieri’s tenure, including a first-round selection in seven of the past 13 seasons.

He served as the head coach of the United States Collegiate National Team for its 2018 summer tour, and he led Team USA to a 12-3 record that included series victories over Chinese Taipei, Japan and Cuba. His sincere commitment to everyday excellence was recognized in a substantial way on January 3, 2014, in Dallas when he was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Mainieri, a four-time National Coach of the Year, joined in the Hall of Fame his father, Demie Mainieri, who coached Miami-Dade North Community College to 1,012 wins and a national title in his 30-year career. Demie and Paul Mainieri are the only father-son combination in the ABCA Hall of Fame.

Mainieri’s commitment to academic achievement was illustrated by the Tigers’ performance in the classroom, as 103 LSU baseball players earned their degrees during his tenure. Twenty-five of the graduates were players who signed professional contracts before completing their college eligibility and returned to LSU to finish their degree requirements. In addition, LSU players received SEC Academic Honor Roll recognition on 151 occasions during Mainieri's tenure.

He established an active community service function within the baseball program, as the Tigers regularly visit hospitals and schools in the Baton Rouge area. The team also participated in events like the in the ALS Walk -- promoting awareness of the treatment of Lou Gehrig’s Disease -- and in the Buddy Walk, which is designed to encourage acceptance and inclusion of people with Down Syndrome.

Mainieri is personally involved in several philanthropic causes, including Cancer Services of Baton Rouge, the ALS Association, the Baton Rouge Children’s Advocacy Center, the Knock Knock Children’s Museum, Prostate Cancer Awareness and the Kelli Leigh Richmond Ovarian Cancer Foundation.

When Mainieri was hired as LSU’s coach in June 2006, he expressed a clear vision for the future of the Fighting Tiger program. Just three years later, LSU occupied the pinnacle position in college baseball as the 2009 NCAA National Champions. Mainieri directed the ’09 Tigers to the College World Series title, posting a 56-17 overall record, including a 10-1 mark in NCAA Tournament competition.

It was Mainieri’s goal to finish his collegiate baseball career in the same place it began 45 years ago. He earned a letter in 1976 as a freshman outfielder at LSU, where he also met his future wife, Karen, then a Fighting Tiger cheerleader. A four-year letterwinner in college, Mainieri played one season at LSU, one season for his father - legendary JUCO coach Demie Mainieri - at Miami- Dade North Community College, and two seasons at the University of New Orleans. The second baseman helped the Privateers win two Sun Belt Conference titles and advance to the 1979 NCAA Tournament during his senior season.

After completing his undergraduate degree requirements at Florida International (1980), Mainieri played two minor-league seasons before earning a master’s in sports administration from St. Thomas in 1982.

Mainieri’s coaching career began at his alma mater, Columbus High School in Miami, where he served as assistant baseball and football coach for three years before taking over as the head coach at St. Thomas in the fall of 1982. He also spent the final three years at St. Thomas as director of athletics.
Mainieri was inducted into the Columbus High School Sports Hall of Fame in October 2009. He is a member of the St. Thomas Athletics Hall of Fame, and the St. Thomas baseball facility in March 2013 was named Paul Demie Mainieri Field in his honor.

He will be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in the summer of 2023.

Born August 29, 1957, in Morgantown, W.Va., Mainieri and his wife, Karen, have four children – Nicholas, Alexandra, Samantha and Thomas – and four grandchildren - Holden, Jonathan, Wren and Rocco.