Cougars Baseball General Manager is Full of Firsts

Sam Gjormand is not crazy about the word trailblazer.

“People throw that word around, and it is a hard thing for me to fathom,” says the Cougars’ general manager, who – after spending three seasons as the team’s director of baseball operations and executive assistant to the head coach – became the first female GM in Division I college baseball.

Being a “first” isn’t all that new to Gjormand, who also became the first female baseball coach in Division I college history when, shortly after she was hired for the DBO job, CofC head baseball coach Chad Holbrook made her an assistant coach who would help recruit players.

“I don’t feel like I’m doing anything special,” she says. “But I know the opportunities that have been granted to me are pretty cool. I definitely don’t take them for granted.”

Baseball is in her blood. Her father, Mark, coached high school baseball for 35 seasons. Gjormand was exposed to the game early. Very early.

“I was at my first game when I was 3 days old,” she says with a chuckle, “straight from the hospital.”

Gjormand played for a couple of years on her high school softball team but was always more attracted to baseball. By her junior year of high school, she quit softball to help manage her high school baseball team. She quickly developed a knack for the game.

In college at James Madison University, the baseball coach asked if she would be interested in being a student-manager for the Dukes baseball team. Gjormand spent the next four years doing everything from running on-field practice drills to helping with day-to-day operations behind the scenes.

Over the summer of 2021, Gjormand served as assistant to the GM and MLB scout liaison for the Wareham Gateman in the Cape Cod League.

“She was invaluable to me in the Cape Cod League, and her career is taking off fast,” Hall of Fame and former Mississippi State head baseball coach Ron Polk said when Holbrook first offered Gjormand the DBO job in 2021. “She will be a star in our game for a long time and have a huge impact on the College of Charleston baseball program.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“Sam has proven to be invaluable to our baseball program,” Holbrook says. “She is much more than an administrator; she has an incredible and vast knowledge of the game and provides our coaches incredible baseball insight to all things Cougar baseball.”

For her part, Gjormand is just happy to be here.

“The College of Charleston baseball program is truly a special place to be,” she says. “I take immense pride in my role of being an advocate for our players and the program. I truly believe that I have the best job in the world and get to play just a small role in the special place that is the College of Charleston and am honored to continue providing our players opportunities in the new landscape of college athletics.”

Check out the Cougars baseball schedule at cofcsports.com. For complete coverage of Charleston baseball, follow the team on X (@CofCBaseball) and Instagram (@CofC_Baseball).