Rob Rinehart is all about giving back to sport. The former South Carolina baseball player (1984-1985) put up great numbers for the garnet and black in his day, but he’s better known for giving his time as a high school and youth coach for the last three decades in his hometown of York, Pennsylvania, where he will be inducted into the York Sports Hall of Fame on September 1.
“It’s really humbling, and I was a little bit shocked when I got the call,” said Rinehart, whose fulltime job is in the oil commodities business. “This is a combination thing for what I’ve done as a high school and college player as well as volunteer coaching. I’ve coached everything from junior high basketball, a varsity basketball assistant, and junior high all the way up through varsity football. I’ve done a little bit of everything. I’ve been around sports all of my life and have a passion for coaching and being around young people. A lot of it was volunteer coaching.
“It all started out by doing half-an-hour hitting lessons with kids at a batting cage. I was giving lessons to eight-, nine-, and ten-year old kids. Eventually it led to coaching other things and about thirty years of doing it.”
Rinehart played two seasons with the Gamecocks after transferring from Baltimore Community College and set several single season records at the time while making a big impact on a rising South Carolina program.
“I played my freshman year up here in Pennsylvania, and the weather was just awful,” Rinehart said. “I can remember standing in the outfield, and it was snowing in the spring. I remember thinking, baseball would be so much more fun if it were warm!
“A friend of our family knew somebody down there and made a phone call to Coach June Raines’ office, and as luck would have it, they were looking for an outfielder. I came down for a visit, and the rest is history. I was originally going to go to Francis Marion (in Florence, S.C.).”
Luckily for South Carolina, he came to Columbia. The leftfielder hit .318 with 33 RBI in 1984 and helped Coach June Raine’s squad post a 41-18 record while advancing to the NCAA Regional in Starkville, Mississippi, where he hit a big three-run home run in the eighth inning to help South Carolina rally for a win against North Carolina. As a senior in 1985, he batted .390 with a then school-record 21 doubles, and 14 home runs, including three in one game against Clemson, and 60 RBI as the Gamecocks reached the College…
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