To be honest, Elliott Avent has no idea what his retirement will look like.

All he knows is, after 30 years as the head coach of NC State’s baseball program, he will leave his office for the last time on June 30, a career sunset that began its dip below the horizon when his team ended its season in the NCAA Auburn Regional in Auburn, Alabama, on May 30.

“I’ve been back here in my office this week talking to players and staff,” Avent says. “It still feels the same as the end to any of the last 30 seasons. The players are still here, the staff is still here and we are all telling stories and talking about the season.

“But I am sure at the end of the month, when I walk out of here and know I’m not coming back as the head coach of NC State, it will be different. I know I’ll be welcome any time, but I’ll have to make a decision about how much I want to be around the program. It won’t be the same.”

He knows the 30 rows of bricks on which he built the program’s foundation are solid — Avent won more games than any coach in any sport in Wolfpack athletics history — and he knows he’s leaving the program in good hands. Chris Hart, Avent’s faithful assistant for the last 22 years, was named his successor just days after the head coach announced his retirement.

“I couldn’t be going out any happier,” Avent says.

Hart inherits a position that is known for its stability and longevity. He’s just the fifth Wolfpack baseball coach since the end of World War II, following Vic Sorrell, Sam Esposito, Ray Tanner and Avent.

Avent knows the program will continue to be the family atmosphere he’s been a part of for nearly half a century, dating back to his student and graduate assistant days. He also knows there is a fine line between being head coach emeritus and hovering, and he doesn’t want to cross it.

“Chris being here is really special to me, so I don’t really feel like I have left,” Avent says. “But it’s his program now, and I’ll be pulling as hard, or harder, for his teams to win as when I was head coach.

“He reminds me a lot of Ray Tanner, as a smart baseball man and as a businessman,” the coach says. “I wasn’t very good as a businessman, but Chris is, and that is important in today’s world of college athletics.”

Hart’s staff is still populated with Avent’s former players and assistants. Avent doesn’t expect to miss any future games, though he won’t attend all of them in person, as long as the streaming services continue to broadcast NC State and Atlantic Coast Conference games.

Avent does have a list of things to get done in between games, exhibitions and camps that can often last year-round, with days that often begin at sunrise and last until work is called on account of darkness.

“My wife has been wanting me to get some things done at home for four or five weeks,” Avent says. “I called a guy to come over and get them fixed. Took like an hour.

“What am I going to do with the rest of my time?”

He’s already gotten a few suggestions. New York Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodon invited him to Yankee Stadium at any time. Rodon also suggested he go see Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner, Cleveland Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey, Seattle Mariners infielder Will Wilson and any other former Pack players working through the minor leagues to reach the pinnacle of their sport.

It’s their dream that Avent helped come true.

He’d like to do some other stuff, too, like go to the Kentucky Derby. There’s two good minutes right there.

He’d like to walk the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club to see The Masters, though, as true fans know, the tournament doesn’t start until the leaders reach the back nine on Sunday afternoon.

Surely, his wife will come up with some other things for him to do around the house.

He’ll figure it out, as he always did on the baseball field, the only place he ever really wanted to be since he first came from his unincorporated Nash County home of Aventon — yes, Aventon — as a student in the 1970s.

He made several stops after leaving to get his degree at Virginia Commonwealth and then spending a year here in graduate school. He spent most of his time in coaches’ offices listening to ribald stories from his mentors — baseball coach Sam Esposito, men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano, men’s soccer coach George Tarantini (and to some tamer, though no less instructive, stories from women’s basketball coach Kay Yow). 

He finished his career with 1,327 overall victories (1,103 at NC State), ranking 21st all-time among all NCAA Division I coaches. He took his teams to 23 regionals, six super regionals and three College World Series.

He was both the ACC and the national coach of the year in 2003 and USA Baseball’s College Coach of the Year in 2021. For his representation of NC State, he was given the Order of the Long Leaf Pine earlier this year, and the new team facilities at Doak Field at Dail Park were recently named the Elliott Avent Clubhouse.

In the end, however, Avent has connected people to baseball and NC State athletics. In three decades as head coach, he became one of the most popular and passionate speakers and advocates for the school, beloved by his players, alumni and fans.

He appreciates that support.

“There’s an awful lot of good people in the world, and many of them are associated with NC State,” he says.