After a year spent as coach-in-waiting on Ed Servais’ staff, Mark Kingston has officially taken over as the head coach of Creighton baseball.
Kingston came to Creighton as associate head coach and coach-in-waiting in June of 2024 with Servais set to retire at the end of the 2025 season. Before coming to Creighton, he was the head coach at South Carolina for seven seasons, from 2018 to 2024. While coaching for the Gamecocks, he had an overall record of 217-155 and led them to two Super Regional appearances in 2018 and 2023.
He began his college coaching career as an assistant at Purdue in 1997, making stops at Illinois State, Miami (where he helped the Hurricanes win a Men’s College World Series title in 2001) and Tulane.
Kingston’s first head coaching opportunity came in 2010 with Illinois State where he spent four seasons before heading to South Florida, where he was the head coach from 2015 to 2017.
Kingston has 15 years of head coaching experience and has led 16 teams to the NCAA tournament, with two making it the College World Series, six playing in the Super Regionals, and one wining the College World Series.
Kingston had been a head coach for 15 consecutive years before joining the Bluejays. Over the course of his coaching career, he has helped lead 16 total teams to the NCAA Tournament, including nine as an assistant and seven while holding the reins as the head coach. The Redbirds, Bulls and Gamecocks all reached the NCAA Tournament under his leadership. A total of six teams that he’s coached over his tenure have played in the Super Regionals, two competing in the College World Series and one winning a College World Series title.
Born in Bison, New York, and raised in Virginia, Kingston played college baseball at North Carolina. While playing for the Tar Heels, he helped the team win the ACC regular season championship, ultimately making it to the College World Series in 1989. The team also made it to a Regional in 1990.
The Milwaukee Brewers drafted Kingston with the 1,144th overall pick in the 41st round of the 1992 MLB draft. He played for five years in the minor leagues, spending time with both the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs organizations.
After spending a year as associate head coach with the Jays, Kingston is ready to share his vision for the program moving forward.
“Historically, I’ve loved balance,” Kingston said at his official introductory press conference on June 9. “Just balance. And when I say balance, I mean left, right, speed, power, power arms, finesse pitchers. There are a lot of things in this game. I think there are very few absolutes in this game, so I’ve always believed that if you have a balance, you have a different way to win games.”
There are many factors that go into making a team and program attractive, including the location, schooling, fans, and the ability to make an impact on the players’ lives. Kingston said that these are just some of the reasons why he wanted to come to Creighton.
“The more I looked at it, I just felt like this is the kind of place that I can really thrive in, and my staff can thrive in,” Kingston said. “So I’ve been all in on it since the minute I said, ‘I think we’ll do it.’ I’ve been all in on it and I’ve just been thrilled with how it’s felt ever since. I just think it’s the right fit. It’s been a breath of fresh air, and I think will get the resources here to win at the level that they want to win here.”
Having a year of experience under his belt with the Bluejays has been great for Kingston. He said that getting to know the area along with the success that the team had in 2025 has helped him tremendously.
“Getting kind of a year head start on this day has been very beneficial,” Kingston said. “The fact that we were able to have a really good impact on this year’s team I think will also really benefit us. Not only from the relationships we’ve made with our current players that are excited to get back and keep moving forward, but also being able to tell recruits now that we’ve won the regular season, the tournament, and we went really far in the NCAA Tournament is a major benefit.”
The transfer portal is a big piece of college sports in today’s world. Creighton has been very active in this process with getting recruits. Kingston said that although he can’t talk about their public commits, they’ve accomplished a lot thus far.
“The reception has been very, very successful,” Kingston said. “We have some guys already in the fold, and we anticipate some more. So it’s been very positive, and I think word is getting out that Creighton’s always been such a tremendous opportunity for players. And I think they know a lot of what’s going on in and around the program and this city, that this place is just becoming better and better.”
Kingston said that there are multiple reasons that he gives both recruits, transfers and players coming out of high school, for why they should join the program, including the team’s success, the education that they will receive, the amount of payers that they’ve had make it to MLB, the great coaching staff and Omaha itself, just to name a few.
“I really think that this is an opportunity that if you’re one of the premier players, it checks all the boxes,” Kingston said.
With all the support from the fans, Kingston said that he believes that Creighton is headed in the right direction.
Now that Kingston’s time as the head coach has begun, he wants to maintain that wining culture that the Jays have had throughout the years.
“Creighton baseball has a great history, and Creighton baseball is here to stay,” Kingston said.
