LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri will be inducted into the St. Thomas University Sports Hall of Fame in a ceremony that will be held Nov. 1.Mainieri coached St. Thomas from 1983-1988, leading his teams to a 179-121-1 record and becoming the winningest coach in St. Thomas history. The team’s 37 wins in 1984 set a school record, as Mainieri was named to the Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year.St. Thomas averaged 30 wins per season under Mainieri, after averaging just 18 in the previous six years. In addition, Mainieri had four of his teams ranked in the NCAA Division-II top 10. Fifteen of his former players entered professional baseball.Mainieri will serve as the keynote speaker for the event, which will serve as the first major fundraiser in the newlybuilt Fernandez Family Center for Leadership and Wellness on the campus of St. Thomas.”You know, I feel like I’m too young to be inducted into hall of fames,” Mainieri said. “But I’ve always been a person that has been very grateful to the people and places that have given me opportunities.”Mainieri added St. Thomas helped shape him into the coach he is today.”We had very few resources there, so you had to be a jack of all trades,” Mainieri said. “I coached the team, but I was also the groundskeeper, the sports information director and the promotion guy. I had to do it all, but it’s a great thing for a young coach because it gives you a great feeling for the entire program.”The 2009 National Coach of the Year will be the fourth member of the St. Thomas Sports Hall of Fame, joining Ken Stibler, first athletic director and men’s basketball coach; Marinka Bisceglia, a softball standout, and John Batule, standout basketball player.Mainieri will also be inducted into the Christopher Columbus Catholic High School (Miami, Fla.) Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, which is his high school alma mater and where his coaching career began as an assistant baseball and football coach.Mainieri said he is appreciative of the honors, but he gave credit to his former players and assistants for getting him where he is today.”When you are a young coach starting out, you wonder if one day you can be recognized for having a good career, but when you get older you start to realize that those things don’t mean that much to you personally,” Mainieri said. “What means more are the relationships you build over the course of time, and you are very humble because you realize you’ve had success because of the opportunities others have given you.”—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]