Paul Mainieri posted a 1,505-777-8 (.659) record in 39 seasons of collegiate coaching at St. Thomas University (1984-88), Air Force (1989-94), Notre Dame (1995-2006) and LSU (2007-21). He completed his career No. 1 on the all-time wins list for active NCAA coaches. Mainieri is No. 7 in all-time NCAA Division I Baseball wins, and he is one of only five Division I coaches in NCAA history to have won over 1,500 games and a national championship.
Mainieri, who was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in the summer of 2023, guided the Tigers to the 2009 College World Series national championship and five CWS appearances. During Mainieri’s tenure, LSU captured a remarkable 31 team championships, including the 2009 NCAA title, nine NCAA Regional championships, five NCAA Super Regional championships, four Southeastern Conference championships, six SEC Tournament titles and six SEC Western Division crowns.
Mainieri recorded a 641-285-3 (.692) mark at LSU, and he has the third-highest winning percentage in SEC history, trailing only former LSU coach Skip Bertman and former South Carolina coach Ray Tanner.
Under Mainieri, the Tigers earned an NCAA Tournament National Seed in six consecutive seasons (2012-17), making LSU and Stanford (1999-2004) the only schools in NCAA history to capture six straight National Seeds.
He served as the head coach of the United States Collegiate National Team for its 2018 summer tour, and he led Team USA to a 12-3 record that included series victories over Chinese Taipei, Japan and Cuba.
Mainieri, a four-time National Coach of the Year, joins his father, Demie Mainieri, as one of only two father-son combinations in the ABCA Hall of Fame.
Mainieri was voted in 2005 to the position of the ABCA’s chair of the Division I Baseball Coaches – which he held for three years. He was also a member of the ABCA executive committee.
Mainieri led his Fighting Irish teams to 11 40-win seasons, nine conference titles, nine NCAA Regional appearances and a berth in the 2002 College World Series, marking the school’s first CWS trip since 1957. In 12 seasons of Big East Conference play, the Irish won more league games (192-67-2, .740) than any other team in the conference.
Mainieri was the first civilian baseball coach at Air Force and averaged 26 wins in six seasons (1989-94) for a program that averaged just 15 wins in the six previous years. He became the only Air Force baseball coach to post six straight 20-win seasons, and his 1994 squad led the nation in hitting (.360), slugging (.623) and triples (0.76 per game).
Mainieri coached six seasons (1983-88) at St. Thomas University in Miami, Fla. The 1984 Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year saw his St. Thomas teams average 30 wins per season (after an average of just 18 wins in the six previous years).
Mainieri played two seasons as a minor-league infielder in the Chicago White Sox organization before beginning his coaching career began at his alma mater, Columbus High School in Miami, before taking over as the head coach at St. Thomas in the fall of 1982. He also spent the final three years at St. Thomas as director of athletics. Mainieri was inducted into the Columbus High School Sports Hall of Fame in October 2009. He is a member of the St. Thomas Athletics Hall of Fame, and the St. Thomas baseball facility in March 2013 was named Paul Demie Mainieri Field in his honor.
A four-year letterwinner in college, Mainieri played one season at LSU, one season for his father – legendary JUCO coach Demie Mainieri – at Miami-Dade North Community College, and two seasons at the University of New Orleans. The second baseman helped the Privateers win two Sun Belt Conference titles and advance to the 1979 NCAA Tournament during his senior season.
After completing his undergraduate degree requirements at Florida International (1980), Mainieri earned a master’s in sports administration from St. Thomas in 1982.
