Longtime AD and 2-time national champion baseball coach Tanner to switch roles at South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Ray Tanner is stepping down as South Carolina’s athletic director after 12 seasons, he said Friday.

Tanner, a two-time national champion baseball coach for Gamecocks, took over as head of the department in 2012 following his team’s third straight trip to the College World Series. The 66-year-old announced his intentions at a meeting of the school’s board of trustees.

Tanner will remain athletic director until his successor arrives. Tanner will then transition to become athletics director emeritus and senior advisor to the president, focusing on fundraising and community engagement.

A national search for a new athletic director will begin at the end of the fall semester.

Tanner said he was honored to be at South Carolina for nearly three decades and the chance to continue in a different role.

“For a while now, I have thought there’s going to come a time for (South) Carolina to get a new athletics director, and the president and I have had those conversations,” he said in a statement. “There was interest for me to remain at the university. I agreed to stay in a new role because of my passion for this university, this city and this state.”

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Pete Iacobelli, The Associated Press