MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When it’s time, it’s time.
That’s the simple reason why Mark McCarty decided to step down as head coach of the Morgantown High baseball team after 20 seasons.
And while he was with the Mohigans for 20 years, McCarty has been around baseball since he was 4 years old throwing in the backyard with his dad.
“Basically, it’s been coming for a couple of years now,” the 61-year-old said. “I’ve been around baseball for so long and it’s just that things started not being as much fun anymore.”
MHS had a record-setting season this year, finishing with a school record 29 wins to just seven losses. But the ultimate goal fell short after a regional championship loss to Wheeling Park kept the Mohigans from reaching the state tournament.
Regardless of the outcome, even if Morgantown High won the first state title in program history, McCarty’s mind was made up that this would be his last year before the season even started. The idea was in his head for the last couple years, but for whatever reason, he still had the itch to keep going.
That itch was finally scratched.
“It’s been a good run and it has nothing to do with anything except me being ready to go,” McCarty said. “I’m not coaching the way I have my entire career, so that’s when I knew it was time for me step aside and see if some younger blood can take this program to the next level.”
In 20 seasons under McCarty, MHS averaged 21 wins but claimed just one regional championship, in 2017. McCarty said if he has one regret, it’s not being able to take that final leap at the end of the season.
“We did not win a state championship and that’s something you need to do at Morgantown High,” he said.
McCarty is a 1975 Kingwood High graduate and was also a part of the Morgantown American Legion squad that won the state championship in 1976. He then went on to play at WVU on scholarship, so he thanks baseball for paying for a majority of his college education.
“I have a lot respect for the game of baseball and I expect it to be played the right way,” McCarty said. “A lot of it paid for a lot of my college degree. If you don’t give it its full respect, I don’t think you really should keep playing the game.”
He continued that belief as he took his first coaching job at Central Preston after college, where he stayed for 11 years. He took the Cavaliers to the Class AA state tournament in 1987 where McCarty believes “we should have won it that year.”
He coached in Martinsburg for one season before moving to Virginia, where he taught at a private school for six years but did not coach.
After returning to Morgantown, McCarty took a teaching job at University High, but the head coaching position at MHS opened up when George Dunbar resigned. After an interview, McCarty got the job in 2000 and remained in that spot until turning in his resignation in late-May.
It took 18 seasons before MHS made the state tournament in 2017 under McCarty — as a program, the last time it made it was 1976. They ended up falling in the state semifinals to Hurricane, but the 2017 squad was loaded with 12 seniors that McCarty enjoyed coaching.
“That was a group of kids that required no discipline what-so-ever,” he said. “They didn’t need any motivation and were a smart group of kids. I kind of expected to go out with that group. The reason I didn’t was that team kind of reignited something inside of me.”
Less than two years later, the fire began to fade again. There were no instances throughout the course of this season — tough losses, altercations or the like that swayed McCarty one way or the other.
He decided before the season that he was done.
“Obviously, we played really good baseball and averaged 21 wins since I’ve been there,” McCarty said. “Hopefully someone can push the right buttons at the end to get it over the top.”
McCarty will miss the practice time and teaching the game, but overall, he doesn’t think he’ll miss coaching too much. It will be an adjustment next year before the season that he doesn’t need to be at Mylan Park at a certain time or to be on a bus to make a trek somewhere else in the state for a road game.
“It’s going to be different, for sure.”
The Mohigans take an annual trip south, usually to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for spring training, which McCarty remarked, “is not cheap.”
The overall support of the program from parents and those closely involved is something McCarty will forever feel indebted to.
“The parents at Morgantown High are great and people around the state almost compliment how quickly we raise money,” he said. “They really support their kids well.”
