How Elliott Avent reached 1,000 wins at NC State

Elliott Avent stood in the NC State baseball lobby, surrounded by photos of the legendary Wolfpack coaches that preceded him before the season began. There’s a portrait of Charles Doak, whom the team’s field is named after, at the top of the stairs next to the three most recent coaches before Avent: Vic Sorrell, Sammy Esposito and Ray Tanner. 

NC State’s baseball tradition is strong, and in part, it is due to the sustained success of each head coach. Sorrell took over the program in 1946 and led the team for 21 seasons before Esposito did the same. Then came Tanner for nine years, followed by Avent, who was named the 16th coach in program history in 1997. 

While the previous trio of coaches were all successful at NC State — a combined 15 NCAA appearances — none of them accomplished what Avent has with the Wolfpack. He led the team to a pair of College World Series appearances through his first 27 seasons, which had been done just once in the previous 93 years of the program (1968).

As Avent stood in the foyer before the season, he was just two wins away from 1,000 at the helm of the Wolfpack. He was asked about it, and though he could see the milestone in front of him, Avent was not banking on it.  

“I’m not counting yet,” Avent said with a laugh. 

Well, he can count now. 

The Wolfpack’s 5-3 win over VCU on Sunday afternoon at Doak Field was the victory that allowed Avent into a small club that has accomplished the historic feat. He is the 35th Division I coach to win 1,000 games at the same school — the first at NC State — and is just one of five active managers to reach the milestone. 

The path to NC State

During Avent’s time as an undergraduate student at NC State, he crossed paths with Tanner, who was the Wolfpack’s shortstop from 1977-1980. Each time they would be around one another, baseball would be the topic of conversation. 

Once Avent departed NC State for North Carolina Wesleyan to start his coaching career, the friendship continued. It stayed that way while Avent was an assistant at VCU,  Louisburg Junior College and William & Mary. 

While Avent was bouncing around, Tanner was an assistant on Esposito’s staff at NC State. That relationship was key when Tanner rose to the head coaching position after Espositio retired. He named Avent to his inaugural staff in Raleigh for the 1988 season. 

Tanner had an easy decision to make when he added Avent to his first coaching staff with the Wolfpack. He saw Avent as an “asset to the program” and called his old friend a “protector of players” as an assistant coach. 

“His passion for baseball is unsurpassed,” Tanner said in a recent interview with TheWolfpacker.com. “You hear things all the time about different coaches or players, but his passion is really unsurpassed, and I think that is an understatement. It didn’t matter if it was Louisburg or summer league in the Valley or if it was NC State, his enthusiasm and passion for the game is unmatched.”

The Wolfpack made an NCAA regional appearance before Avent set off for New Mexico State the following year — his first head coach job. But nine years after he added Avent to his staff at NC State, Tanner was off to South Carolina to take over the Gamecocks’ program. 

That left NC State with a baseball head coaching opening, a position that Avent considered his dream job. He was the one, in the end, to replace Tanner, his friend, who went on to make five College World Series appearances and win a pair of national titles with South Carolina. 

“He probably wasn’t the shoe-in candidate to replace me, but he got the job,” Tanner said. “A lot of times the right person doesn’t get the job. In this case, he did. … He was the right person for the job and that has played out over the 28 years of success that he’s had there. I couldn’t be happier for a colleague than I am for him and what he’s been able to do.”

The qualities to 1,000 wins

Avent took a program that was a consistent winner and brought it to another level. He has logged 10 40-win seasons with 20 NCAA regional appearances, five super regionals and a pair of trips to Omaha, Neb. 

But what has been the secret to Avent’s success? His personality is a good place to start. He’s a baseball lifer — he left NC State before he graduated to pursue a coaching career and later finished his degree during his stop at VCU. 

For assistant coach Chris Hart, who has been in the dugout for 703 of Avent’s 1,000 wins at NC State during his 20 seasons as his right-hand man, his boss is more than just a coach to his players. 

If any of his players, current or former, need something, Avent is one call away. It could be for a flat tire or a personal matter, Avent is always there to help. That quality has led to production on the field, too — his players have his back on the diamond. 

“Coach Avent, truly with every ounce of what’s in him, has always cared about the players more than himself, more than anything else in the world,” Hart said. “It’s always been about the players, it’s always been about what he can do for them — not only on the field but off the field. I think they know that. They play hard for him, and they care for him. His love for his players is second to none.”

While Avent’s caring personality has helped through the years at NC State, so has his ability to teach as a “blue-collar coach.”

Former NC State infielder J.T. Jarrett, who is now the Wolfpack’s director of player and program development, grew up around baseball. His father, Link, was a longtime collegiate assistant and the head coach at UNC Greensboro and Notre Dame before he took the job at Florida State in 2023. 

Jarrett said Avent’s ability to emphasize attention to detail, as well as his skill of knowing the “pulse of the locker room” has led to victories on the field, too. 

“He’s not about the flash and all this new stuff that we’ve got going on in college sports,” Jarrett said. “He’s old-school. I think if you can pound that into 18- to 23-year-old kids, they get something out of it. Those constant sayings of ‘we’re going to do the small things right every time,’ they just become more consistent in life and on the baseball field, ultimately.”

But in the end, it all circles back to Avent’s love of the game — what Tanner saw when they were both at NC State together. 

Avent possesses a unique drive when it comes to baseball. He has not been any different since he started his professional career after he graduated from college, and as Tanner put it, “it’s who he is.”

“Nobody has had that unwavering enthusiasm and passion for the game that he has on a daily basis,” Tanner said. “A lot of people can’t do anything for 28 years. That’s who he is. He’s the baseball coach at NC State day in, day out, morning and night, off the field, on the field. To me, that’s one of the reasons he’s been so successful. It’s so easy and natural for him. It’s what is important to him.”

Tanner, who is now South Carolina’s athletic director, asks a specific question to each coach during the hiring process for the Gamecocks, and it reminded him of Avent. The question? “Do you have a motor?”

The thought process is simple. To be a successful collegiate coach, in any sport, the around-the-clock-passion is required. As Tanner looked at it, Avent fits that mold exactly. 

“It can’t just be off and on,” Tanner said. “He’s not. He’s on. He’s on about the Wolfpack and that baseball program, and that’s why he’s won 1,000 games.”

Will it happen again?

Avent is one of nine current D-I coaches with more than 1,000 career wins. But the feat of doing that at one school, like he accomplished this weekend, is likely not going to occur much often after Avent’s milestone victory. 

Tanner, who has been in college athletics for nearly as long as Avent and currently makes decisions on South Carolina’s coaches as the athletic director, thinks that it will be tough for coaches in the future to hit 1,000 at one school. 

“You go down the records and you start looking at the day in time, right?” Tanner said. “For many years, coaches would stay in positions for a long, long time. Well, that changed. Now, coaches, presidents, athletic directors, you don’t stay in one job for a long period of time. … He’s that guy that has been able to sustain that and do it the right way. It’s just a tremendous accomplishment.”

Tanner is not alone in this thinking. Hart, who has spent practically his entire coaching career on Avent’s staff — minus his lone season at St. Petersburg (Fla.) College as an assistant — agreed with that. 

“It’s very hard to accomplish 1,000 wins at one school,” Hart said. “I don’t know if those kinds of numbers will ever happen again, to be honest with you, as far as coaches that are coming up. … It’s just hard to be at a school that long.”

“These guys that have been coaching as long as he has,” Hart continued, “they have probably win numbers that the younger generation might not ever see.”

While it is a rare occurrence, Avent has pointed to the coaches that came before him and his hundreds of players that have come through his program in the last 28 years. Jarrett, who has been on both sides of the table with Avent now that he is on staff, thought Avent’s accomplishment has cemented his legacy into the NC State baseball program. 

“He would attribute it to the coaches that were here before him, he always does, and how he’s just trying to keep up with the standard they set,” Jarrett said. “But I truly think he’s left his impact here and you can’t deny that.”