It took just 20 seconds for Monte Lee to tell the hundred or so people packed into the WestZone team meeting room on Monday how he felt about being named Clemson’s new head baseball coach.

“This is a dream job of mine,” he said during his formal introduction as the Tigers’ new coach. “I don’t know if I can even put into words how excited I am about this opportunity for my family, for my friends and for myself. I’m extremely excited about it.”

The excitement comes from Lee being a true South Carolinian. He was born in Spartanburg, raised in Lugoff, attended and played for the College of Charleston, was an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina and then returned to Charleston as a head coach.

“I have been very fortunate in my career that I lived in South Carolina my whole life and I have coached in South Carolina my whole life. Not many people get that type of opportunity,” Lee said.

Not many people get the opportunity to be the head baseball coach at Clemson either. Lee is just the third head coach in 58 years to lead the Tigers’ baseball program. He succeeds Jack Leggett who won 955 games the previous 22 years and Bill Wilhelm, who won 1,161 games in the 36 years he led the program.

The Clemson baseball program is in the top 10 in all-time victories and has won more ACC titles than any other school.

“The tradition of Clemson is second to none,” Lee said. “It has been led by two men over the last fifty-eight years between Bill Wilhelm and Jack Leggett. When you look at what these two men accomplished in their careers here at Clemson, it’s incredible. Two thousand, one hundred and sixteen wins at Clemson between these two men.”

Lee followed those comments by spitting out statistic after statistic on Wilhelm and Leggett, while showing his respect on what each man accomplished in Tigertown.

Besides his 1,161 victories, Wilhelm won 17 regular season ACC Championships and seven tournament championships, which is an ACC record. He also had six College World Series teams and his 1991 squad won an ACC-record 60 games.

“I don’t even know how you do that,” Lee said.

As for Leggett, who Lee recognized as the one Wilhelm passed the torch too, he won three ACC Championships, six trips to Omaha, nine Super Regionals and 21 Regionals. His 1994 team won 57 games, which is the second most in ACC history.

“That is tradition,” Lee said. “And that is one of the main draws for me to be here at Clemson, to be able to follow two great men.”

So who is Monte Lee? He is from South Carolina. He is married and has four daughters. He played baseball at the College of Charleston, was an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina and was one of the more successful coaches in College of Charleston history.

Lee’s seven teams in Charleston won 276 games, eclipsed the 40-win mark three times, earned four NCAA berths, advanced to one Super Regionals and won three conference titles.

“We don’t have any professional sports in South Carolina,” Lee said. “College baseball is huge in this state and when you grow up in South Carolina, like I have, you are on one side of the fence or the other.

“This (South Carolina) rivalry is second to none in college baseball. I can tell you this. We are going to do our best here at Clemson to recruit the kind of kids that can come in here and knock down that fence to play for us. The kids of South Carolina will be our upmost priority and we will recruit this state inside and out.”

What else can anyone expect from a South Carolina boy from Lugoff, who just landed his dream job?