STARKVILLE – Three name plates were placed on a table inside the media center on Mississippi State University’s campus on Thursday afternoon.

Chris Lemonis. Jake Mangum. Jared Liebelt.

The Mississippi State baseball team was minutes away from a pre-NCAA Tournament press conference, and there’s nothing unusual about those three faces appearing before the media. They've all been instrumental in leading the Bulldogs to the No. 6 national seed in this year's tournament. Then a fourth nameplate was placed just to the left of that of Lemonis.

Kyle Cheesebrough.

Cheesebrough, Mississippi State’s volunteer assistant, has never formally answered questions in front of the entire hoard of Mississippi State media. That’s above his paygrade – which is essentially non-existent. Volunteer assistants are usually only paid through preseason camps that are put on by the schools they work for.

In the wake of last month’s vote to deny college baseball coaches the right to hire their volunteer assistants as full-time, paid assistants, Lemonis wanted to give Cheesebrough the credit that he – and the rest of the volunteer assistants across the country – deserves.

“Can I say one more thing?” Lemonis asked the moderator while everyone else in the room was stirring around to leave. “Across the country, we’re bringing out our volunteer assistants. So as you see them get interviewed this weekend, we’re just trying to make that position more visible across the country.”

Miami head coach Gino DiMare didn’t wait until the end of his press conference to touch on the topic. He used a two-and-a-half-minute segment during his opening statement to dive right into the discussion on volunteer assistants.

“Which is a terrible, terrible title for the coach, by the way,” DiMare said. “He’s putting in as much hours as anybody.”

Lemonis concurred and even went as far as to say that Cheesebrough might work harder than he does himself. When Lemonis is at the park, so is Cheesebrough. The latter might be there at times when his boss isn't, too.

Miami’s current volunteer assistant, Bo Durkac, is 46 years old. He was the head coach at Illinois State for four seasons before joining DiMare’s staff. Durkac has spent nearly two decades getting paid to be in the collegiate coaching ranks. He was the hitting coach at Charlotte for seven years before arriving at Illinois State, where he was the hitting coach for five seasons before assuming the head coaching position.

Like Cheesebrough, who serves as Mississippi State's catching coach and third base coach during home games, Dukrac has specific duties at Miami. He works with the infielders. Both coaches have been instrumental in their teams' success this season, but how long can they afford to hold their current positions?

Durkac has two children to care for. DiMare knows that.

“I can assure you that he cannot stay as a volunteer for many years at our program by us just paying him through camp,” DiMare said. “A lot of times, volunteers can’t afford to be there all day. They have to have another job. They have to be somewhere else.”

Central Michigan, another one of the programs participating in this weekend's Starkville Regional, has a volunteer assistant of its own with vast experience. Tom Winske coached for 20 seasons at Division III St. Nobert. His 444 wins are the most ever by a Midwest Conference coach.

Now Winske can't even get paid for helping a team get to the Division I NCAA Baseball Tournament for the first time since 1995. Like Cheesebrough, Winske works with the team's catchers and coaches at third base when the Chippewas are at bat. He played a part in the Chips winning the Mid-American Conference Tournament last week.

"We are thinking maybe we can get this guy paid a couple of peanuts at some point," Central Michigan head coach Jordan Bischel said. "It is disappointing that we don’t get that opportunity... I think he’s probably the winningest head coach at the regionals here, and we’re not even allowed to give him a paycheck.

College baseball has the worst paid-assistant to player ratio in major collegiate sports at 1:12. For reference, college basketball teams have three paid assistants to oversee 13 scholarship players plus walk-ons. That’s one assistant coach per every five players if a team has two walk-ons.

Mississippi State’s brass has been audibly upset at the recent vote to deny legislation. The Southeastern Conference spearheaded the movement, so MSU’s Director of Athletics John Cohen was perplexed as to why other administrators across the country did not see the value in adding a third paid assistant in college baseball.

Lemonis was more demonstrative in his disappointment at the news of the down-vote. He described it as “absurd” and “out of whack.” The least Lemonis can do is voice his opinion, which he has already done. Thursday, he took the next step. He gave his volunteer assistant the type of attention he believes he deserves.

“We’d like to get them in the spotlight because we feel their value is as much as anybody’s in college baseball” Lemonis said.

More:The Dudy Noble difference: How hosting might move Mississippi State through NCAA Tournament

More:What to know before Game 1 of NCAA Tournament's Starkville Regional

More:Breaking down Mississippi State baseball's NCAA regional opponent: Southern University

Contact Tyler Horka at thorka@gannett.com. Follow @tbhorka on Twitter. To read more of Tyler's work, subscribe to the Clarion Ledger today!